Peking duck

Tam West

Not all of us have a local Asian supermarket or Chinese restaurant where you have the convenience of buying your duck already cooked for a peking duck feast but it is incredibly easy to cook the duck yourself as this recipe shows.

You can now also buy Saveur peking duck in some supermarkets and speciality food stores.

For the thin pancakes to wrap the duck and the hoisin sauce to accompany it, see the recipes on our peking duck platter.

Ingredients

1 whole	Duck (Main)
¼ cup	Soy sauce
¼ cup	Honey
¼ cup	Shaoxing rice wine, or use dry sherry
1	Cinnamon stick
3	Star anise
1 knob	Ginger, a small one, finely sliced
1	Orange, peel only
1 Tbsp	Black peppercorns

Directions

1. Wash and clean the duck then place into a large stockpot and fill with enough cold water to cover the bird. Add soy sauce, honey, and shaoxing. Add cinnamon, star anise, ginger, orange peel and peppercorns. Bring water to the boil. Add the duck and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove duck, cool and refrigerate uncovered overnight.
2. Bring the cooking liquor back to the boil and leave it to reduce by two-thirds. Drain, leave to cool and refrigerate, covered, overnight. You can use this liquor to glaze the duck as it roasts, for extra richness, but you can leave this step out if you like.
3. The next day, roast the duck in a hot (225C) oven until golden and crispy (approximately 1½hours), glazing with your reduced liquor every 20 minutes.