Cooking Duck

mel123

Firstly, do regular butchers sell this as i have never seen it before?
What way do they sell it (whole, shredded etc)?

Alun

Normally you buy either a whole duck, a half duck or breasts. I've not tried buying it in butchers shops, but many supermarkets sell it.

The easiest option in my book is duck breasts.

The simplest way to prepare them is to season with salt and black pepper, score the skin/fat, whack it in a very hot frying pan (no oil or fat required, you'll soon see why!) skin side down until the skin starts to crisp, flick it over and straight into a hot oven for 10 minutes or so, possibly a bit longer depending on how you like it done. Leave to rest for 5 mins and slice on the diagonal. Oh yes, and make sure you have the smoke alarm turned off

I like to serve it with a gratin of some sort, and some nice sweet red cabbage. There's dozens of other ways of preparing it, but that's the most basic and simple way.

mel123

was thinking of making just shredded duck pancakes, like u get in the chinese...how easy is it to shred it tho, they make it look easy in the chinese, i am thinking now its not easy!!!
i am having a re-think now, esp if my smoke alarms are going to go off...dont think it would look too well as the guests turn up!!!!

tSubh Dearg

for easy duck pancakes M&S sell a half aromatic duck with pancakes etc

They suggest shredding it by using 2 forks to tear the flesh off, it works pretty well.

You could get a whole duck in my local butcher but you have to give him 24hrs notice. It's best when roasting a whole duck to do it on a rack over the roasting tin so that it's not sitting in the fat and as mentioned leave the door/window open the whole time to let out the smoke from the duck fat.

Alun

mel123 wrote:

was thinking of making just shredded duck pancakes, like u get in the chinese...how easy is it to shred it tho, they make it look easy in the chinese, i am thinking now its not easy!!!
i am having a re-think now, esp if my smoke alarms are going to go off...dont think it would look too well as the guests turn up!!!!

The 'recipe' I gave wouldn't be suitable for that .. it's generally served slightly pink in the middle like lamb, so wouldn't work for shredding like the stuff they serve at the Chinese. As far as I know it's quite a complicated procedure to prepare the duck the way they do ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_Duck

Splinty

mel123 wrote:

i am having a re-think now, esp if my smoke alarms are going to go off...dont think it would look too well as the guests turn up!!!!

You can eliminate a lot of the smoking by treating it a little differently. Start it out skin side down on medium heat, not high to render out the fat. Once it gets going, I drain the fat in the pan and crank it up to high to crisp the skin up. I cook mine to medium like a steak if I am having duck breast.

Best way to eat the finished product? sliced thin on a mixed greens salad with balsamic vinegarette. Yum!

(and if you are making it into a salad it doesn't have to be piping super hot so you can just keep it warm in the oven... have it a little rarer than you want to serve it at if you are doing this for more than 15 minutes)

mel123

tSubh Dearg wrote:

for easy duck pancakes M&S sell a half aromatic duck with pancakes etc

They suggest shredding it by using 2 forks to tear the flesh off, it works pretty well.

.

I like that idea!!!! Have u tried it (shredding with forks i mean)?? Easy or hard??

shrapnel222

when the fat has melted in the pan, remove it and put it in another frying pan and sautee some potatoes in it- just plain delicious.

tSubh Dearg

mel123 wrote:

I like that idea!!!! Have u tried it (shredding with forks i mean)?? Easy or hard??

Their duck it fairly easy to shred with the 2 forks method, though it's a bit tricky around the bones and then I cheat and use my fingers.

I roasted a whole duck this evening, started it upside down on the rack with some cracked black pepper on it and a tiny amount of sea salt.

Cooked it like that for 30 mins, then I turned it over and pierced the flesh to let the fat run out, more seasoning on the top half, then another 30 mins.

Eat! It was gorgeous.