So this one's courtesy of Lily (you know who you are)!
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Duck Night!
I had a Luv-A-Duck half-duck sitting in my freezer for a little bit. Being Cantonese, we love our roast meats - Roast Duck is something I'm partial too. So now that Coles has a range of Luv-a-Duck products (Peking marinated breasts, straight duck breast, and now this half-duck)... who am I to refuse?
Setting: well, I rarely entertain (curse of living by yourself), but sometimes a great excuse comes along. That, and also had a kitchen assistant to do most of the work for me - lazy me! =D
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Okay, down to business: what did I do? A three-course meal.
1. San Choy Bao
2. Duck Pancake
3. Fried duck udon
I'll walk you through my thoughts and processes, and show the snapshots soon.
PS: I've left out the 'Duck' steps on each part: if you're using the same duck for all three courses, you learn to time it so that you can add the duck at the appropriate point - use your head first!
SAN CHOY BAO:
Inspiration and key recipe: http://www.luvaduck.com.au/recipes/view/peking-duck-san-choy-bou/52/#.VETlnyKUdsQ
San Choy Bao is almost always offered when you go out to any DECENT Asian restaurant that has Roast Duck on the menu (you can't NOT have the Peking Duck Pancake as the main 'Course', with the secondary option either SCB/duck udon/duck soup)
Key features: you NEED to get your hands on the water chestnuts somehow. When fried with Oyster or Hoisin sauce, it provides the key crunch for your meal.
Ingredients (in order):
Shiitake Mushrooms: one large or two-three smaller ones. To be Diced.
One clove of garlic, grated
(approx) 3-4cm piece of ginger, grated
One stalk of spring onion, sliced thin
200g of water chestnuts (I got mine tinned). To be diced.
100g bean sprouts (mine were tinned). Washed then diced.
As much duck meat as is appropriate.
Oil for frying.
Oyster/Hoisin sauce for colour and flavour.
Method:
*1hr before: have one large or 2-3 smaller Shiitake mushrooms immersed in boiling water.
1. Asian staple: Heat a good dollop of oil and fry your aromatics (spring onion, garlic and ginger) on high heat for about 30secs.
2. Toss in the diced water chestnuts, add a tablespoon of Oyster sauce (for colour and flavour). Fry on high heat for another minute.
3. Remove all and set aside until the duck is ready
4. Toss in the shredded duck meat, diced bean sprouts and diced shiitake mushrooms, add more sauce (if needed - colour and flavour), and stirfry on high heat for two minutes.
Service:
Serve the mixture up in a large bowl, have large cup-leaves of iceberg lettuce ready.
Let everyone serve themselves.
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2. Duck Pancake
I've already said this is a mainstay, so don't get this wrong!
Inspirations: http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/15430/peking-duck-pancakes
Ingredients:
Luv-a-Duck half-roast duck (pre-spiced with 5-Spice) - so technically this is "Aromatic Duck Pancake" rather than "Peking Duck Pancake"
Lebanese cucumber
Spring Onions/"Shallots"
HoiSin Sauce
Make your own Pancakes vs Store bought pancake.
Method:
Quantity does not matter: make as much or as little as you want.
Thinly slice strips <5cm of the shallots
Thinly slice strips <5cm of your cucumber (skin on/skin off is up to you)
Serve Duck as-is, and carefully slice shallow lengthwise strips of duck skin and duck meat with a sharp blade.
Feed yourselves and help yourselves: add duck, shallots, cucumber. Coat with sauce, fold the pancake, and NOM!
PS: if you want to try making your own pancake batter/fry it yourself, I've included this recipe that looks promising. I cheated with store-bought stuff.
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3. Fried Duck Udon.
Recipes: none. Home made and practiced over the months.
For me, soup-udon is a staple for when I don't want to think about cooking anything for dinner, but not pathetic enough to have two-minute noodles (all Asians have their personal stash). So out comes the udon, the chicken stock, some veggies: fresh hot soupy noodles for me!
Ingredients:
Ginger/Shallots/Garlic: Aromatic staples for fragrance and flavour - same as above in #1.
Shiitake mushrooms: same as #1: add as much as you want for the mushroomy bite. Diced
3 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced/julienned (slice as thin/thick as you want)
Shallot stem/dark green bits: for a bit of crunch. ~2cm lengths.
Broken bits of iceberg lettuce leaves (hey, you can't expect to pull 4-6 PERFECT leaves all the time - put the scraps to use!)
Shredded duck meat
Soya sauce/Oyster sauce for colouring
Packets of Udon noodles, prepped as per packet instructions.
(PS I used Nama Udon, but that's a family habit I've never questioned)
Method:
*1hr before: have one large or 2-3 smaller Shiitake mushrooms immersed in boiling water.
1. Asian staple: Heat a good dollop of oil and fry your aromatics (spring onion, garlic and ginger) on high heat for about 30secs.
2. Toss in the carrots, shallot stems and lettuce leaves, stir-fry on high heat for 2-3 minutes or when the veggies get soggy.
3. Remove and take off from the heat, waiting for the duck.
4. When ready to resume, add a dash of oil on med-high heat. Toss in the veggies to warm them up slightly.
5. Open two packets of Udon (400g), gently bend and fold and add directly into the pan. The noodles should start to separate after a few seconds of warm oil and the heat. Also toss in the diced shittake, any excess veggies you NEED to add.
6. Add soya sauce for flavour and colour, keep tossing the udon for about a minute.
7. Add the shredded duck (already cooked) and keep tossing the udon mix for another 2 more minutes.
Into a big bowl and serve =) Happy tummies.
For me: I made my portions set for all three courses together, so I had plenty of veggies and stuff left over. So I got out two more packets of udon - my resultant image is actually four-packets (800g) worth of udon there. I merely split the portions for two batches of fried noodled and fried all that.
Well, enjoy the cooking, and good luck doing your own!!
Saleem
-annoyanc3
1. Asian staple: Heat a good dollop of oil and fry your aromatics (spring onion, garlic and ginger) on high heat for about 30secs.
2. Toss in the carrots, shallot stems and lettuce leaves, stir-fry on high heat for 2-3 minutes or when the veggies get soggy.
3. Remove and take off from the heat, waiting for the duck.
4. When ready to resume, add a dash of oil on med-high heat. Toss in the veggies to warm them up slightly.
5. Open two packets of Udon (400g), gently bend and fold and add directly into the pan. The noodles should start to separate after a few seconds of warm oil and the heat. Also toss in the diced shittake, any excess veggies you NEED to add.
6. Add soya sauce for flavour and colour, keep tossing the udon for about a minute.
7. Add the shredded duck (already cooked) and keep tossing the udon mix for another 2 more minutes.
Into a big bowl and serve =) Happy tummies.
For me: I made my portions set for all three courses together, so I had plenty of veggies and stuff left over. So I got out two more packets of udon - my resultant image is actually four-packets (800g) worth of udon there. I merely split the portions for two batches of fried noodled and fried all that.
Well, enjoy the cooking, and good luck doing your own!!
Saleem
-annoyanc3
Thanks for the post! I use that udon from TongLi too! What brand pancake do you use?
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I didn't pay much attention. I cheated with the Mai Hong brand Spring Roll pastry from Coles
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