Spicy duck with crackling
Here’s a sneaky way to make 24 or more delicious canapés using just two duck breasts.
| Recipe By: | Jane-Anne Hobbs |
| Serves: | 8 as a canapé |
| Cooking Time: | 120 minutes |
| Cook's Tips: | This dish is ideal for starting the day before, as the flavour of the duck breasts will improve overnight. I’ve used the five-spice powder sparingly, but feel free to add more if you’d like more perfume in the dish. |
| Prep Time: | 15 minutes |
Ingredients
- 2 duck breasts
- 80 g spring onions, thinly sliced to make curls
- 1/2 cucumber, sliced julienne
- 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
- 2/3 cup Hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- black pepper, milled
- 1 tbsp Maldon sea salt
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Cooking Instructions
- Heat the oven to 160ºC.
- Place the duck breasts, skin side down, in a cold frying pan. Turn on the heat under the pan to its lowest setting, and heat the breasts very slowly and gently for 10 minutes, without disturbing them. This long heating process will help to render the fat.
- Turn up the heat in the pan to medium high. Fry the duck breasts in their fat for another 4 minutes, or until the skin is a rich golden colour.
- Place the breasts, skin-side up, in a small, shallow ceramic oven dish and pour over all the juices and fat from the frying pan. Sprinkle half a teaspoon (2.5ml) of five-spice powder into the juices, cover with a piece of foil or kitchen paper and bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes at 160ºC.
- Now turn down the heat to 120ºC and roast for 1½ to 2 hours, or until the duck is very soft and succulent. At this point, you can refrigerate the duck overnight (If you’d like to prepare the duck the day before, follow the recipe until step 4, then tightly cover the dish containing the cooked breasts with foil and refrigerate it overnight. Gently warm the dish through in the oven before carrying on with the recipe.).
- Half an hour before the duck is ready, cut the cucumber in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. Cut into neat, small cubes. Finely slice the spring onion (you’ll use only the purple, white and pale-green parts).
- Remove the duck breasts from their cooking dish, peel off their skins and set both aside. Skim the fat off the top of the remaining juices and reserve – you’ll use this to fry the crackling.
- Pull the duck flesh into shreds and place these back into the dish in which you cooked them, tossing well so every shred is coated in juices. Keep this mixture warm in the oven while you make the crackling.
- Sprinkle the remaining half-teaspoon of five-spice powder over the duck skins, then slice them into very fine strips. Heat the reserved duck fat in a small frying pan and fry the strips over a medium-high heat for a minute or two, or until they are golden brown and crisp. The duck crackling carries on browning for a while when it comes out of the pan, so don’t let it get too dark when you’re frying it. Drain well on kitchen paper and season generously with salt.
- Remove the warm shredded duck from the oven and mix in the cucumber cubes and spring onion. Stir in the hoisin sauce and rice vinegar – to taste - and season with salt and milled black pepper.
- Divide this mixture between 24 or more small warmed spoons – or little bowls – and top with the crisp duck crackling.
- Serve immediately, garnished with baby leaves.
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