Hi everyone, welcome to this episode of Amanda Tastes.
I made the steamed Chinese pancake for roasted duck in my last video.
Today, I am going to make the main course, the roasted duck.
First, let’s see how to do with the duck.
We will need rice vinegar, maltose or honey, and shaoxing wine.
The best part of a roasted duck is its crisp skin.
To have that, we need to do something on the duck skin first.
That is, pour the boiling water over the skin.
Make sure you cover both sides, and repeat this process for three times.
Don’t forget the skin under the wings.
After that, the skin shrinks a little, so then it becomes very smooth to touch.
Now let’s prepare the glaze water. Add the remaining boiling water to maltose.
Stir to dissolve completely.
It’s absolutely fine to use the same amount of honey instead.
Then add in rice vinegar, and shaoxing wine.
This is the glaze syrup.
Glaze duck skin with syrup while the skin is still warm.
Cold skin cannot be glazed evenly.
Brush the syrup onto the skin, and then rub with your hand to spread evenly. 20 00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 Repeat for three times
on both sides.
Do it carefully, and make sure you glaze evenly on the skin.
Again, don’t forget about the skin under the wings as well as the inner thigh skin and the other edges.
Once you are done, we will hang it up to dry.
I will show you two ways that I am most comfortable with in terms of hang drying a duck.
The first one, you need a wine bottle filled with water.
Hang the duck on top of it.
Use a chopstick to lift the wings.
Leave the duck to stand straight like so in a cool place to dry.
Or, you can hang it up side down on a hook.
And leave it by the window.
Hang it to dry for at least 5 hours.
So I’d like to prepare the duck a day before hand, and let it hang overnight.
The second day, I will start to roast it when the duck is ready.
Now let’s prepare the other ingredients.
There are cucumber, the white part from spring onions, sweet bean paste, and sesame oil and sugar for the sweet bean dipping sauce.
You need apples and orange as well.
Now the duck skin is dried completely.
Dried skin will lose its soft and springy texture.
And it becomes a little firm and hard to touch.
It feels more like a piece of oilpaper attached to the skin.
The skin is a little yellowish, and it’s the right condition you are looking for.
If you didn’t rinse the duck with boiling water, or you did not hang it for long enough, you will not have that crisp skin after roasting.
Now we cut off the wings. These are too lean, so they will get burned in the oven.
Cut the apple into chunks, and cut the orange into halves.
These are the stuffing inside the duck while it is roasting.
Doing so on one hand can fill up the breast and create a better shape.
It also helps to absorb the heat evenly in the oven.
On the other hand, fruits add an extra flavor and juice to the meat.
So that you won’t dry the meat out.
Since we don’t marinade the duck, stuffing helps to get rid of the smell of duck meat, and it soaks up the fat as well.
Once finished, close the skin using a toothpick.
Preheat the oven to 200C/392F.
Now make a final check on the skin. Pluck the duck with tweezers.
Pay attention not to break the skin.
Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil, and place the duck breast side up on a wire rack.
Reserve water in the pan, and place the duck over it.
Just a little water will be fine, and it will prevent burning at the bottom of the pan.
Duck breast side up, pop the duck in the oven.
Reduce the temperature to 180C/356F right after you close the oven. Roast for about 40 mins.
While the duck is in the oven, prepare the dipping sauce and side dish.
Normally sweet bean paste in a grocery store is very salty, and it doesn’t have the real fragrant.
So I like to cook it by myself.
Add sesame oil in the pan, followed by the sweet bean paste.
Pan over low heat, cook until it bubbles.
Add sugar.
Keep cooking until sugar dissolved and the paste became aromatic.
Add a little water in
to make the paste thinner.
Bring it to a boil to reach your favorite consistency, and it’s done.
Transfer it to a little sauceboat, and set aside.
Now, side dish.
Peel a cucumber and cut into matchstick pieces.
Slice the bottom white part of a scallion lengthwise.
Take the inner part out.
Slice the outside part into very thin strips.
Cucumber and scallion are irreplaceable side dishes for this course.
Plus the sweet bean paste, these three sides go perfectly with a roasted duck.
Of course you can add more if you like.
For example, radish strips, or lettuce.
You can also make a duck roll with the lettuce.
Now the duck has been in the oven for 40 mins.
You can see it’s brown on one side, so now flip it.
Wrap the legs and wings with aluminum foil to keep them from burning.
Set it back in the oven with back side up. Roast under 180C/356F for 20 mins.
Wait until the back gets browned, then flip it again.
Put it back in the oven, roast it again under 180C/356F for another 20 mins.
The time needed depends on the size of your duck. Mine is about 2kg, so I roasted for about 80 mins in total.
Roast it for more or less time based on your duck weight.
Add 20 mins or so for every 500g more weight.
Leave the duck to rest before carving.
It’s very hot right now, so rest for at least 20 mins.
Carving a duck requires techniques. We are no professionals like chefs, so just do it in your way.
Here I am going to show you a much simpler version of carving.
Hold the wings in one hand to keep the duck stand.
Carve lengthwise right in the middle of the duck breast.
Starting from the breast meat up around the neck, then slice along the bone.
Arrange the duck breast slices like this.
For these are the most evenly sliced pieces of a duck.
And then tear the other breast meat off and cut into small pieces.
Line these uneven duck meat at the very bottom of a plate.
Set the even pieces on top.
Serve with the other side dishes, and the steamed pancake from last episode as well.
You may be very familiar with the way it serves.
Steamed pancake at the bottom, place duck meat over it, spread sweet bean paste, topped with cucumber ticks and scallion strips, and wrap the pancake around the meat.
The second stage, you are left with a remaining bone and meat, use your hand to tear them off.
Chop them up and stir fry with scallion and sweet bean sauce.
The remaining bone can also be made into a broth.
Use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut it into large pieces and set in a stew pot.
Submerge the duck bone in hot water.
Add in two slices of ginger.
Braise for about an hour.
This roasted duck really requires a lot of techniques.
Besides cooking techniques, you also need a pretty good oven with the right volume and quality.
Since we are not quite accessible to a hung oven at home, so the final dish is not that glossy and pretty as in a restaurant.
However, if you have done a good preparation, you can still make a successful Peking duck with thin and crisp skin.
If you have enough time and if you are interested, please try it out.
Even though this dish is quite complicated and time consuming, but it deserves all the efforts.
I hope you enjoy this episode of Amanda Tastes.
Don’t forget to give me a thumb up and subscribe to my channel. Lastly, thanks for watching.