Lacquered Duck In Mandarin Pancakes Recipes

Steps:

• Prepare the ducks. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Mix 1/4 cup of the rice vinegar with the honey and brush the ducks all over with this mixture.
• Place the ducks in a roasting pan and roast them about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour off the accumulated fat. Give the ducks a quarter turn and return to the oven. Repeat this process for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the ducks are dark golden brown on all sides. Remember to pour off the rendered fat each time you turn them. When completely cooked, transfer the ducks to another pan and let them rest so that the fat continues to drain from the insides.
• Meanwhile, in a saucepan, reduce the plum wine with the mint sprigs and orange peel to a glaze. Add the vinegar and reduce it by two thirds. Add the plum puree and reduce it by half, until the flavor is quite intense. Add the demi-glace and continue to reduce the mixture by half, or until it is thickened slightly and tastes delicious. Over very low heat whisk in the butter, a little at a time. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper. Strain the sauce and keep it warm.
• Remove the breasts and legs from the duck. Place them on a grill or under a broiler or salamander until the skin is crispy.
• Slice the duck breasts into medallions. Separate the legs and thighs; arrange half a duck attractively on each plate. Sauce the duck with the plum sauce. Decorate each plate with a scallion-filled Chinois Pancake.
• Place the plums, wine and berries in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until the plums are soft, about 15 minutes. Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor and strain it through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce to 1 cup. Set aside.
• In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, egg and sesame oil. Whisk in the milk, then unless your batter is completely lump free, strain into another bowl. (The batter should be the consistency of heavy cream). If the batter is too thick, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you get the desired consistency.
• Stir in the ginger, garlic and scallion.
• Heat the butter in a non-stick crepe pan over moderate heat. Add 2 tablespoons batter, then swirl the pan to coat the bottom with batter. Cook the pancake over high heat until golden brown. Turn it over and brown the other side. Remove from the pan and keep warm. Repeat the process until all the batter is used.
• Cut each pancake in half, place a scallion on each and roll into a cone shape.

Steps:

• In a large pot, bring the water to a boil. Place the duck in boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool and dry. While the duck is cooling, in a saucepan, add peanut
• oil. Heat. Add ginger, star anise, Chinese five spice powder, soy sauce and honey. Add sesame oil. Bring mixture to a boil. Cover duck with marinade and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• The next day: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain and pat duck dry. In a roasting pan with rack and 1/2 cup of water. Roast 2 hours. Let cool then, remove the meat from the carcass and save the skin. Cut the duck into strips, and then assemble the pancake.
• In a warm oven or grill, heat the pancake. Spread 1/2 tablespoon hoisin sauce over each pancake. Place 2 to 3 ounces of duck, 2 cucumber strips and 2 scallion strips in front of the pancake. Then roll it like sushi into a tube shape. Cut off the end, then cut the remaining pieces into 1-inch rounds. Arrange on a serving tray and garnish with the crisp skin and fresh cilantro

Steps:

• To make pancakes: place flour in mixing bowl. Gradually stir in boiling water to form rough dough. Let cool 10 minutes. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Cover with dampened towel and let stand 30 minutes.
• Cut dough in half and shape each half into 1-1/2-inch-thick log. Cut each log into 12 equal pieces. Cover with dampened towel.
• Place 1 piece dough, cut side down, on lightly floured surface. Using your fingers, press into 2-inch circle. Repeat with another piece of dough. Lightly brush top of 1 circle with oil. Place other circle on top and lightly pinch edges together. Repeat with remaining dough. Working from center of each double pancake to edge, roll out into 6-inch circle.
• Heat well-seasoned or very lightly oil nonstick skillet over high heat until very hot. Place 1 pancake in skillet and cook, shaking skillet, until puffed in center, about 1 minute. Flip pancake, then cook and shake about 30 seconds longer. Pancake should be dry on surface but still supple. Let cool several seconds and peel apart. Fold each pancake, cooked side in, into quarters and place in steaming rack lined with cheesecloth or parchment paper. Cover rack with dampened towel. Repeat with remaining pancakes.
• Heat oven to 425 degrees.
• Remove excess fat from duck. Rinse inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Rub garlic and ginger over outside and inside of duck, then place in cavity. Rub 2 T. soy sauce over outside of duck to color it. Place duck, breast up, on rack in roasting pan and pour 1 cup water into pan. Prick duck all over with fork. Roast 1 hour, pricking occasionally with fork and turning over once.
• Mix remaining 2 T. soy sauce, the rice wine, orange juice, cranberry juice, 1/2 cup water, and the honey.
• Remove duck from oven and carefully pour off fat and water. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Pour juice mixture over duck (which should be back side up). Roast 45 minutes, basting every 15 minutes and turningover once. Let stand 10 minutes before carving.
• Meanwhile steam pancakes on rack over boiling water 10 minutes.
• Thinly slice duck breast and leg meat. Remove all meat and tear into shreds.
• To serve, smear scant teaspoon hoisin sauce over center of pancake, sprinkle with scallions, and add 2 slices duck. Roll up pancake.

Steps:

• Whisk flour and salt together in a large bowl. Gradually stir in boiling water until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. Return dough to bowl and cover with a damp towel; let stand 30 minutes.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/4-inch thick. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut out circles from dough. Working with 1 round at a time, gently brush one side of dough with sesame oil, using your fingertip or a small pastry brush; top with a second round. Using a rolling pin, roll both rounds together into a 6-inch circle. Cover with a damp towel and repeat process with remaining dough rounds.
• Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add one pancake to skillet and cook, turning once, until lightly golden and dry, about 30 seconds per side. Remove from skillet and let cool slightly; separate into 2 pancakes. Repeat process with remaining pancakes. Pancakes can be made ahead and wrapped with plastic wrap; to heat, unwrap pancakes and steam in a steamer basket set in a saucepan with 1 inch simmering water until warm.

Steps:

• Rinse ducks inside and out and pat dry. Remove excess fat from cavities and truss ducks. On a metal rack set in a large roasting pan arrange ducks, breast sides up and several inches apart. Let ducks dry, uncovered and chilled, 3 days.
• In a small bowl stir together boiling water, honey, and vinegar and cool to room temperature. Brush ducks with some honey mixture, keeping them chilled, and brush again every 20 minutes for 1 hour. Let ducks dry at room temperature 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Pierce skin of ducks all over with a fork to allow fat to drain and help skin get crisp. Roast duck in middle of oven until mahogany brown and a meat thermometer inserted into fleshy part of a thigh registers 180°F., about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let ducks stand 10 minutes. Discard string and carefully pour out juices from cavities.
• Cut around entire breast of each duck with a sharp paring knife and carefully peel off crisp skin in large pieces. Cut skin into 2 1/2- by 1-inch strips. Cut away and discard any fat on breast meat and remove breast meat from bone. Slice breast meat diagonally into 1/4-inch-thick slices and arrange on a platter with crisp skin. Remove legs from duck and arrange on another platter. Duck meat may be reheated and skin recrisped in a 350°F. oven until just hot.
• To make scallion brushes:
• If serving mock pancakes halved, 48 scallion brushes (one for each half) will be necessary for rolling inside the pancakes. If leaving the pancakes whole, 24 scallion brushes will be needed.
• Trim roots and green parts from scallions, leaving about 2 1/2 inches of stalk. Fringe ends of scallions by cutting slits about 1/2 inch deep all around both ends of each stalk, leaving about 1 inch of solid scallion in center, and spread fringed ends gently. Put scallions in bowl of ice and cold water. Chill scallions 2 hours, or until fringed ends have curled
• Drain scallions well.
• To assemble pancakes:
• Using a scallion brush spread some hoisin sauce on a pancake (whole or half) and top with the scallion brush, some breast meat, and some crisp skin. Roll up pancake to enclosed filling. Make more pancakes with remaining scallion brushes, hoisin sauce, breast meat, and crisp skin in same manner.
• Serve duck legs on the side.

Steps:

• Lightly score into the skin of the duck legs.
• In boiling hot water, add vinegar and sugar. Stir.
• Submerge the duck legs in the glaze mix for 20 seconds.
• Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F).
• Pad dry the duck legs with kitchen roll.
• Mix well all the marinade ingredients.
• Give the duck legs a good rub in the marinade.
• On a cooling rack set over a baking tray, place a bed of the marinade then put the duck legs on top. Make sure they are skin side up.
• Roast the duck legs for 30 minutes on 160°C (320°F).
• Turn up the oven to 200°C (400˚F) and roast the duck for another 20 minutes.
• Rest the duck legs for 10 minutes, then shred them with two forks.
• Serve with Chinese pancakes, hoisin sauce, shredded spring onions, and sliced cucumber.
• Enjoy!

Steps:

• Place flour in a medium bowl. Add the boiling water in a thin stream while stirring with chopsticks or a wooden spoon. It helps to set the bowl in a heavy saucepan lined with a dish towel to keep it stable, or a friend stabilize the bowl as you do this. Add the cold water in a thin stream, continuing to mix the whole time. Stir the mixture until it turns into a shaggy ball, then dump the ball out onto a lightly floured work surface.
• Knead the dough with your hands until it forms a smooth ball, about 5 minutes. Cover the dough ball with a damp dish towel and let rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to a couple hours.
• Roll the dough into a log roughly 10 inches long, then cut it in half crosswise. Line up the two small logs, then section each one in 6ths to form 12 pieces (for approximate 8-inch pancakes); in 8ths for 16 pieces (for approximate 7-inch pancakes) or in 10ths for 20 pieces (for approximate 6-inch pancakes).
• Roll two pieces into smooth balls between your hands, working with one piece at a time. Then, using a rolling pin or wine bottle, gently roll each of the two pieces into circular disks about 1/4-inch thick. (You'll cook two pieces at a time and proceed through the end of Step 7 before rolling out the remaining balls.)
• Brush the top of one disk with a thin, even layer of oil, then stack the second disk on top. Using a rolling pin, roll the stacked disks into a 6- to 8-inch circle. The size will depend on the number of balls you made in Step 3.
• Heat a cast-iron, carbon steel, or nonstick skillet over medium until a drop of water flicked onto the surface immediately bubbles and evaporates (about 2 minutes), then add the rolled, stacked disk. Let cook on one side until blistered and browned in spots, about 1 minute. Flip and cook until second side is blistered and browned. Sometimes the pancakes will bubble up with steam as they cook, preventing the second side from making good contact with the pan. You can gently press down on them with a flat spatula if this happens.
• Remove the cooked disk, then carefully peel it apart into two thin pancakes while still hot. Transfer to a plate and cover with a clean dish towel.
• Repeat Steps 4 through 7 for the remaining dough balls, adjusting heat as necessary to make sure the pancakes brown in spots but don't blacken. Finished pancakes should be served while still warm. To store leftovers, place the pancakes on large squares of plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then roll them up like a jelly roll and refrigerate. Reheat covered in the microwave, or briefly heat one at a time in a hot, dry skillet.

Steps:

• The duckHeat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Mix the honey and five-spice in a bowl, then brush all over the duck. Transfer to a roasting tin and roast for 25-30 mins until bronzed. Cool for 10 mins, then shred the meat and finely slice the skin.
• Plum sauceWhile the duck is cooking, put all the plum sauce ingredients in a saucepan and simmer gently over a medium heat for 15 mins or until the plums are soft and the sauce is thick. Using a stick blender, blend until smooth.
• PancakesWhile the sauce is cooking, put the flour, 125ml boiling water and a pinch of salt in a bowl and mix together until it forms a dough. When cool enough to handle, knead for 5-10 mins. Divide it into 10 little balls and roll each one out as thin as you can. Brush a frying pan with the oil and cook each pancake over a medium heat for 20 secs each side or until cooked but not browned.
• To serveSpread a pancake with a little plum sauce. Top with the shredded duck, a few pieces of cucumber and spring onion.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1. Loosen the skin on the duck by wriggling first your fingers, then your hand between it and the flesh until it pulls away - be careful not to break the skin. Trim off any excess fat from cavity and skin around the neck. Rub the skin all over with the five-spice plus a good sprinkling of salt. Put the duck in a roasting tin and push the star anise, orange peel and orange halves inside. Spoon the vinegar, rice wine and stock into the cavity, don't worry if it spills out again. Cover the roasting tin with a tent of foil and cook for 2 hrs.
• Turn oven up to 240C/220C fan/gas 7. Take foil off, pour off any juices (keep for the noodles, see 'Goes well with') and return duck to the oven for 30-40 mins or until the skin is browned and crisp.
• Once cooked let it rest for 10 mins. Slice off the breasts and shred meat and skin. Pile onto a plate, keeping meat and skin separate. Keep warm in a low oven, covering meat with foil to stop it drying out but skin uncovered to crisp it further. (Remove the rest of the meat in chunks for the noodles - see 'Goes well with'.)
• Heat the pancakes and serve the duck with accompaniments.

Steps:

• In a large skillet heat the peanut oil to medium-hot.
• In the meantime, dry the duck with several layers of paper towels.
• Brush the duck liberally with the soy sauce, being certain to paint it all over and thoroughly.
• When it is fully brushed, place the duck into the hot peanut oiled skillet and fry it on both sides until it turns a dark golden brown.
• While the duck is frying, bring to a boil a pot of water deep enough to completely submerge the duck.
• Into the pot, add a bouquet garni made of 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, 4 whole star anise, 6 whole cloves, salt and white pepper, dried peel from 1/2 of a tangerine, about 2 oz. sliced ginger root, 4 green onions (tied in knots), and water.
• After the stock has simmered for about 20 minutes to release the essences from the bouquet, take the fried duck and place it into the stockpot.
• At this point, lower the heat and poach the duck for exactly 1 hour.
• This causes the thick fat layer in the duck to dissolve and be extracted from under the skin.
• When the allotted cooking time is done, remove the duck from the stockpot, drain it well, and allow it to cool.
• Cut the duck in half and remove the rib bones, back bones, neck bones, and thigh bones (but leave the drumstick and wing bones on for presentation).
• IMMEDIATELY sprinkle the duck halves with salt and white pepper.
• Then sprinkle the duck halves evenly with cornstarch.
• Then sprinkle over the cornstarch with cold water.
• Then top everything off by the sprinkling of all-purpose flour.
• Then place both duck halves on a metal steamer rack and set the rack down inside the stockpot that you poached the duck in originally.
• With the burner set to medium, cover and steam the duck halves for 20 minutes.
• As soon as they come out of the steamer pot, transfer the duck halves to a preheated 375 degree oven.
• In about 15 to 20 minutes the oven heat will cause the water from the steaming process to evaporate from the duck meat, consequently crisping up the skin in the process.
• This is probably the most critical part of the entire recipe, because a miscalculation here could completely dry out the duck and make it stringy instead of crispy and juicy.
• So, it is important to watch the halves carefully while they are in the oven.
• You'll now make the Mandarin Sauce from these ingredients listed in the ingredients section: 1 small onion diced, 2 ribs celery (coarsely chopped), 2 cups of the poaching stock, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 3/4 head of crushed garlic, 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, and 2 tablespoons cornstarch.
• While the halves are crisping, take about 1/2 cup of the oil from the skillet you originally browned the duck in and pour it into a wok.
• Then over high heat, fry down until the veggies are richly browned.
• When all the veggies have caramelized (which intensely flavors the oil and which should take about 5 minutes or so), spoon into the wok about 3 or 4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and cook it into the oil to make a roux.
• Then, carefully ladle into the roux about 1 or 2 cups of the poaching stock to make a gravy.
• This is where the intensity of the flavors is created.
• The stock is ultra-rich in duck flavor, and the roux is ultra-rich in caramelized onions and garlic.
• Finally, when you are ready to serve the dish, remove the duck from the oven, cut it into julienned strips, and place it on a platter.
• Then finish the Mandarin Sauce by stirring into the gravy 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken it.
• Serve over a bed of white rice if desired.
• I know it is a lot of work, but very few other dishes even come close to the taste of this great dish!
• NOTES: To make and use a bouquet garni, simply tie up the herbs you select in a piece of cheesecloth and simmer them in water for at least 20 minutes.
• When you steam the duck halves, rest them on top of strips of green onions or carrot slices so that the steam can circulate under the meat. Otherwise, the duck will not cook consistantly.
• Be careful when adding the poaching stock to the hot roux. If this is done carelessly, the oil could splatter and cause severe burns! When doing this, I wrap a thick towel around my arm.