Chinese Recipes - Peking Duck Recipe

Ingredients 

• 1 large  duck (about 2 1/2­lbs or 3 lb in weight)

• 1/4 teaspoonful of five spice powder or mixed spice powder

• 3 or 4 teaspoonfuls of salt

Seasoning:

• 2 pints of boiling water for cleaning the duck

• 2 tablespoonfuls of malted syrup, boil with 2 tablespoonfuls of hot water

• 2 teaspoonfuls of vinegar

• 1 teaspoonful of wine

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

•   3 tablespoonfuls of apricot jam

4 servings

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Method:

1. Buy a large duck, and open It from the side to remove the entrails. Tell the hawker or market dealer that you want it for "Peking Duck" and he will open it for you. Make sure that the lungs are removed. Wash it well.

2. Combine mixed spice powder, and salt. Spread this mixture around duck's interior. Pour boiling water over the duck 4 or 5 times. This will make the duck hard and crisp when roasted. Use a pastry brush and apply malted syrup vinegar mixture over the duck. Hang Duck-to dry. Hanging up for about 3 or 4 hours in the sun would be very good. - But if there is no sun, use a hair-dryer instead.

3. When it is dry, place the duck on a big fork and hold over an open char, coal stove or fire Turn quickly and constantly. Both ends of the duck should be roasted for 10 minutes. first. This heats the the entire bird and the body can then be roasted in about 20 minutes.

4. Another method is to place the whole duck (which has been dried under the hot sun) in a big sieve or chip-basket and fry the whole duck in hot deep fat (about 1 1/2 lbs of cooking oil) for 20 to 25 minutes. keep on turning whilst frying.

5. Peking Duck is usually served in 2 stages. Crisp fried skin, cut into pieces about 1 1/2 ins wide) is eaten first. It is placed on an oval dish in the centre of the table and surrounded by small dishes of heavy brown sauce of a chutney type, steamed bread or savory buns.

6. Then pick up a piece of bread with chop­sticks, place it on plate, take a piece of duck skin, add one onion stalk, fold the whole thing over sandwich style and eat it with chopsticks if possible. The meat of the duck appears later as another course.

7. The meat of the duck should be cut into thin strips, season with 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of oyster sauce, and fry with t lb. of green peppers, cut into thin strips; 10 to 15 minutes. serve hot on an oval dish.