ROAST DUCK
CHINESE
STYLE
I have been incredibly lucky to have travelled with work. Sometimes it was incredibly stressful, perhaps the worst coming into Shanghai at customs where the customs officer, who was just doing his job, holds up a picture of South Australian crayfish and makes very clear it is not allowed. My live crays are scratching in their foam boxes doing their best to get out and I am wondering how I am going to get out of this one when I remembered I had an official letter from Alexander Downer, then Foreign Minister of Australia, wishing our promotion well.
Hauling it out lovely expensive gold embossed stationary of the Foreign Minister and I say brandishing the letter, “he is my Chairman Mao” and running my finger across my throat I suggest he would be very unhappy if my boxes were confiscated. They went to one side, had a brief discussion and then waved us through as the scratching became louder and one box had started to drip where the ice must have melted on the oysters.
My time in Chengdu working for Mr Zeng, the owner of some of China’s most expensive traditional restaurants, was an incredible experience and gave me the opportunity to see true Peking Duck. At the highest level of Chinese dining only the breast skin is served with the spring onion brushes, plum sauce and pancakes. I don’t cook with that kind of extravagance, but the prearation method is something I have been able to apply to my own cooking.
One of the tasks I was given in Chengdu was to create a Western dish using the rest of the ducks. It was of course pasta with shredded duck confit.
AO 29 june 2026
Hundreds of black chicken and ducks in a freezing cold room with massive fans drying out their skin for the perfect crispiness
the peking duck Hung briefly over a wok of sizzling oil that is ladled over the duck until the skin is crisp. The duck meat itself is a long way from being cooked.
Put the rack in your sink, sit the duck on top. Cut off the wing tips, then put the aromatics into the cavity. Tightly stitch up the cavity and then tightly tie up the neck, the drum sticks and the wings.
Turning the duck several times, finishing breast up, pour boiling water over the duck. Place the duck still on the rack into a roasting dish and rub fine sea salt into the skin on all sides of the duck.
DAY ONE
Buy a decent duck preferably a fresh one and a two kilo size is excellent. You will also need a couple of kilos of onions, or a mix of leek and onion.
Think about your finished dish in this instance being the orange season I knew I would be putting our duck with a classic French orange sauce.
you will NEed
Cooking twine, needle, very clean sink, rack and boiling water
Rinse the duck under cold running water and dry it outside and in the cavity. We chose an orange, [fresh from a neighbour’s tree] quartered, thyme bay and a couple of brown onions chopped a bit.
Put the duck, uncovered, into the fridge [domestic cooking]. Or if you are a restaurant put the duck under the coolroom fan. After day one turn the duck so that it is bottom side up on the rack for twenty four hours and then turn it back to the breast. In a commercial situation the duck should be ready to roast after three days, but in a domestic fridge I find four to five days is best.
day five
preheat the oven to 180°C
Put the duck to one side. Peel and chop a bed of onion and leek, or just onion, that is at least 2cm thick in the bottom of the roasting pan and place the duck on top.
Put the duck in the oven and set a timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes bring the duck out of the oven, turn it and scrape darkly coloured onion under the duck. Add about half a litre of water and return the duck to the oven. Set a timer for 30 minutes again. Turn the duck, scrape the very coloured onion away from the edges of your pan and cook for another hour until the skin is paper thin, crispy and coming away from the flesh, which by now should be tender and moist.
plating
Pull all of the skin from the duck and keep it warm. Remove the aromatics from the cavity and squeeze the orange into the onion.
You can either use the onion base as it is or purée it and work on it from there.
Pull all of the flesh from the duck and keep it moist and warm in a Freezer bag until you serve.
Make your sauce. In this instance we puréed the onion and leek, added a jar of our Seville orange marmalade and vinegar. Boiled it up and tested to endure we had an excellent sweet-sour orange sauce and added a bit of chilli to the sauce.
Moisten the flesh with a little of your sauce, cover it with the crisp skin and serve the sauce separately. </p>
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