Chinese whole roasted duck with homemade pancakes

Serves 2 very greedy people or 4 if you have other dishes

For the duck:
1 litre of water
3 tablespoons honey
1 orange, sliced (or if you have dried orange peel, put about 2 of those in to substitute)
3 tablespoon dark soy
150 ml tsao tsing wine
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice + extra
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 star anise
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 slices of ginger
3 cloves of garlic
Salt

For the pancakes:
285g plain flour
250 - 270ml very hot water
Sesame oil

To serve:
Sliced cucumbers
Sliced spring onions
Hoisin sauce

Equipment:
Meat hook ( I actually don't have one so I MacGyver-ed it with a metal clothes hanger)

1. Wash the duck thoroughly, plus inside the cavity. Pat dry.

2. In a large pot with 1 litre of water, add the honey, orange, soy, wine,  1/2 teaspoon of five spice, pepper, 1 star anise, cinnamon, 2 slices of ginger and 1 clove of garlic. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer for 10-20 mins.

3. Cut off the feet and wings off the duck (I didn't because I like those bits) Hook the duck on the head end and hold it on top of the pot. Turn up the heat - it has to be really hot. Using a ladle, baste the whole duck in hot stock, letting the stock run back down into pot the till the skin is slightly dark yellow. Reserve the liquid (optional if you can't find hoisin sauce).

4. Hang it to dry for 5 hours or over night, in front of a fan. After 5 hours the skin should feel very tight, shiny and dry.

My husband, just hanging out with our duck

5. Season the duck inside with salt, pepper, a pinch of five spice, a pinch of cinnamon, one star anise, 2 slices of ginger, and 2 cloves of garlic. Don't season the skin. Preheat the oven to 240 degrees Celsius.

6.  Remove the hook and place the duck on a rack with a tray under it filled with 150ml of water. Roast the duck at 240 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes, then lower to 180 degrees Celsius for 1 hour 10 minutes. Halfway through I wrapped the feet and tips of the wings in foil so they won't get burnt. If you've cut them before roasting then you don't need to do this step.

7. While the duck is in the oven, make the pancakes. (Or you can make this while the duck is hanging out to dry) In a bowl, stir in the hot water into the flour until it's absorbed. Knead for about 5-10 minutes until it's smooth. Cover and rest for half hour. It should look like this:

8. After 30 minutes, take it out of the bowl and knead it again for a minute. If it's sticky, dust a bit of flour. Roll into a cylinder 18 inch long by 1 inch. Cut into 1 inch segments. It should make about 18.

9. Roll two segments at a time into two balls. Take one of the balls and dip the bottom part into sesame oil and then put that on top of the other ball. Roll them out into 6 inch circles. Be careful not to seal the outside too much. Use some flour to dust if it gets too sticky.

10. Cook in a dry pan on low heat until it's dry and slightly browned. Let it cool and then carefully separate the two pancakes.

11. I couldn't find hoisin sauce at my convenient store so I had to make my own sauce. I used the basting liquid and reduced it till it was syrupy, then thickened it with some cornflour mixed with water. If you can find hoisin sauce, then skip this step.

12. Remove the duck from the oven and allow it to rest, uncovered for about 20-30 minutes. Slice the duck and serve with pancakes, cucumbers, spring onions and sauce.

* The ducks in Singapore markets are not very meaty. My mother says it's because the sellers save the biggest ones for the hawkers and the restaurants. I don't know what it's like in other countries though! 

If you are able to get real chummy with your poultry seller and get him to save you a big one, that would be cool. But a normal duck from the supermarket or wet market will feed two greedy people (my husband and I ate it all... at one go) and about four normal folks.

I adapted this recipe from Ken Hom with a 1980s haircut. You can check it out on YouTube here. It's his recipe for Peking Duck. I don't want to call this Peking Duck because you really need some skill and proper equipment to make that. The traditional Peking duck  skin has to be really crispy, but in our normal ovens it may not be possible. But this recipe is still good and quite crispy anyway!