A sucker for legs on a plate?

If you’re nodding, don’t worry you fine chump because so am I.

Almost everyone has heard of Peking Duck. It’s so yummy isn’t it. This is something like that, except without the pancake and that lovely thick, sticky sauce. Using the same kind of flavours, here’s my end of exams roast dinner. A little sinful I know, but I don’t regret this (I don’t usually when I eat) at all. In fact, I enjoyed the moment to the fullest since I didn’t speak at all, not to anyone in the room, for the full 10min I spent polishing this off. Carpe diem for duck lovers. 10min happy time with mon amor.

I have never prepared duck and actually, come to think of it, don’t believe my mother has ever prepared duck either. What a shocker. Duck is something we usually purchase from food markets and enjoy at respectable Chinese restaurants so I suppose it’s quite the indulgent bird; therefore, fitting for end of term!

I’ve used Gressingham duck, which is famous for their gamey flavour. No doubt about it, this bird was succulent as hell. For those of you who prefer to know where your food comes from (not just your trusted supermarkets), click here to check out Green Label or the ‘Gressingham duck people’.

This messy heap you see in the picture is my salad. It seems I fail at making salads pretty. At this point I’m tempted to raise my fists to the sky and demand an answer from God but that’s just taking it a melodramatic step too far. Plus, He’s really busy with real problems of the world rather than the outcome of my pitiful salad.

So alright. The radish, carrots and sesame was meant to be a salad with a soy and sesame oil dressing. I’m still posting up the original recipe (which was my original intention) but I might have tweaked this a little to accommodate the amazing sauce of the duck. It was just too great a waste to chuck it all down the sink. So, the sauce was mixed in with a few drops of sesame oil, tossed and served on a plate with the duck leg; then (even if I’m not a gravy-loving Northerner) all contents on the plate was drowned finally with it. What a grand finale!

This wasn’t very pretty and so the foodshot isn’t too great either. The truth is I got way too excited about jumping in for the final kill that my hand was shaking so bad, therefore spilling and spraying sauce everywhere. Diva turns spastic for about 5 seconds (no offense). The salad didn’t go nicely onto the plate either because it kinda flopped down onto the dish with a loud ’squelch’. Talk about elegance. But I’m absolutely thrilled at the outcome. Great taste, awesome smell and the sauce was just out of this world. I was even none too bothered that my salad was completely drowned with sauce and nothing like what I’d imagined my food presentation to look like. But heck! It was fantastic as it turned out.

Too bad this was a serving for 1 (Anna was making Salmon with Ginger and some lovely Lime & Onion Sauce for her and Alex) so go green with envy guys.

Mum recently checked out moi blog. I was pretty shy about letting the family in on this blog but Mum - guess what? - gave a HUGE THUMBS UP (blimey, I do use that phrase more than I should don’t I? If I use it in my comments on your foodblog too I apologize…bad habit!). She said the pictures are lovely and everything looks so good. Can’t help but say my heart flutters with a tiny bit of pride that I’ve been praised. Mum’s also been preparing Japanese dishes every day so it’s great that we can compare notes. One added foodie expert, yes please!

Chinese Roast Duck Leg and Radish, Carrot & Sesame Salad
Ingredients

1 Gressingham duck leg
1/2 spring onion, chopped
1 tbs honey
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
1/4 tsp chili powder

For the spicy sauce:
300ml chicken stock
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1 tbs honey
2 tbs pomegranate juice (common recipes use dry sherry)
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp chili sauce (preferably a spicy one with chili bits in it)
1 garlic clove, crushed

For the radish, carrot & sesame salad
2-3 red radish, thinly sliced
3 small carrots, sliced into rounds
1 tsp white sesame seeds
1/2 spring onion, chopped
1 tsp dark soy sauce
a few drops of toasted sesame oil

In a round casserole dish, marinate the duck leg with the honey, 5 spice and chili powder. Rub it well into the skin and the meat underside. Cover and leave to marinate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 200d Celsius.
In a saucepan, heat the stock with the respective ingredients. You can use dry sherry as other recipes usually call for but I prefer using fruit juice and pomegranate works better than something like apple juice I reckon. Do not let the sauce boil.
Pour over the marinated duck leg and cover with foil.
Place in the oven on the middle rack and let it roast for 1 hr.

Near the end of that hour, remove the casserole dish from the oven. Pierce the duck with a sharp thin knife. Baste with the sauce. This will smell great and you can cheekily test the flavours of the sauce. I assure you it’s wonderful.
Ladle about 2/3 of the sauce into a saucepan, leaving the last third in the dish.
Return casserole dish to oven, this time without the foil and turn heat up to 220d Celsius.
Let it roast in there for 10-15min.

Place saucepan containing the duck sauce over a low fire. Add half of the prepared spring onions and let it simmer to reduce slightly. Also, take this chance to skim off excess duck oil off the sauce. After the 10-15min or when the duck’s top layer skin has crisped up, remove from oven.

For the salad:
Cook the carrots in boiling water. Strain away the water. Toss with sliced radish and rest of ingredients. Soy sauce and sesame oil is all there is to the dressing as the sweetness of the carrots will do the trick. Simple as that. ALTERNATIVELY, add a few drops of sesame oil and 2 tbs of the duck sauce then toss. Works plenty better than soy sauce alone.

Salad and duck leg go on a big plate.
Remove simmering sauce from fire. Let cool a little then let it flow, my friend, from that saucepan onto that plate of gorgeousness. Don’t be a wimp about it, trust me. Garnish with spring onions.