Peking duck (from scratch)

Inspired from The Art of Cooking

(serves 6-8)

Peking duck is a traditional Chinese food, fit for emperors! It's a complicated process to get the ultimate crispiness of the skin. Usually the skin is shaved off and served with pancakes, shallots, cucumber and sauce. It's one of my brother's favourite foods, I still remember when we went to China about 12 years ago and had it every night for 4 days straight!
This experiment certainly takes a fair bit of effort. I've tried it 3 times now in the past 8 months, all three times for special occasions and also following a supermarket sale on frozen duck. The first time was for Paul's birthday, then the second time was for Mystery lunch and the third time for our bible study group social. 

It was an enjoyable experience but I'm not sure how often i'll be doing this. Firstly, you need to take the duck out of the freezer 4 days before you're going to eat it to defrost it properly before you can even start the marinade process so it requires a fair bit of planning! Secondly, the glaze is a bit of hard work - however the lazy alternative works reasonably well - just not as sweet and crispy with the skin. Thirdly, you have to spend a reasonable amount of time the night before and on the day. However, the final product was quite delicious, but still not as good as the roast duck you buy.. especially from Cabramatta! Nonetheless, it was a fun experiment and a worthwhile experience - respect to all those roast duck and Peking duck makers doing this everyday!

Prep time: 1 hour + overnight
Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients
1 x 1.8 - 2.2kg duck
salt

Inside marinade
4 Tbsp hoi sin sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp five spice powder
1 Tbsp white pepper 
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp ginger powder
1 x 3cm piece ginger
1 x 3cm piece shallot
2 star anise

Outside glaze

Maltose - intensely thick and difficult to use! Not sure if we would use this again

2 C honey or 1 C honey, 1 C maltose (combined with 2 C boiling water)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 C white vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 C boiling water

Lazy alternative for glaze
Soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
Salt

Method
1. Clean the inside of the duck.
2. Try to put your hand under the skin and create a space between the skin and the flesh. 
Note: This will help to crisp up the skin.
3. Pat dry and set aside.
4. Prepare the inside marinade by combining the hoisin sauce with sugar, garlic powder, five spice powder, white pepper, salt and ginger powder. 

5. Place this inside the duck carcass with the ginger, shallot piece and 2 star anise. Use a metal skewer and 'sew' the hole together.

6. Prepare the glaze by combining the honey, lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce and boiling water. Stir to create a liquid glaze.
7. Pour boiling water over the duck (over the sink) to tighten the skin.
8. Pour the glaze ladle by ladle over the duck until you have finished it. Alternatively, you can just pour some soy and dark soy sauce and rub over the skin to give it some colour.
Rub salt all over the skin. Note: This should help to dehydrate the skin. 

9. Refrigerate overnight on a roasting rack to allow the skin to dry out, breast side up.

10. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
11. Place the duck on a roasting rack breast side up for 45 minutes. Flip and roast for a further 45 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave in the oven for a further 15 minutes.

12. To serve, cut the skin (and meat) off and serve with Peking duck pancakes or steamed baos, cucumber, hoisin sauce and shallot sticks!