Five Spice Duck Breast with Bok Choy and Gai Lan

This is a very simple recipe that is quick and easy to do and tastes wonderful. I love duck and cook it all the time, whilst I have made duck with friut sauces and Asian sauces and they are wonderful. Sometimes I think you can overcomplicate recipes and they are tasty, but they are time consuming with lots of steps and sometimes simple is the best way to go.

Ingredients

4 Duck breasts
1-11/2 Teaspoons five spice powder (depending on the size of breasts.)
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
5 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Star anise
4 Bunches Gai lan
2 Bok choy
200ml Water
1 Teaspoon chicken stock
1-2 Tablespoons honey, depending on personal taste
6 Green onions, sliced 2cm long
11/2 Teaspoons cornflour


Method

1. Cut diagonal slits in the skin being careful not to go all the way through to the flesh. (not to far apart as these will be the size of slices, you will slice the duck when finished.) Rub five spice over breasts.

2. Heat a pan and add duck skin side down cook for 8-10 min's to crisp up skin and render fat. Place breasts on a wire rack in an oven proof dish. Cook in pre-heated oven 180ºC for about 25 Min's, or until cooked as desired.

3. Remove duck from oven, allow to rest for about 5 minutes then slice along slits.

4. While the duck is cooking cut the ends off of the bok choy and trim gai lan, in a large pan or wok, add soy, garlic, star anise and gai lan stir-fry a few minutes.

5. Add water, bok choy, chicken stock and sugar stir-fry a few minutes more and then add onions and cook about a minute more remove vegetables to warm serving plates. Mix a little water with the cornflour and add to sauce, thicken slightly. (sauce will not be too thick it is not ment to be.) If not using a wok you will probably have to cook the vegetables longer as regular pans do not get as hot as woks.

To Serve: Arrange vegetables on a plate, top with duck breast and drizzle sauce around plate. Decorate with some star anise if desired.

All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.

Crispy Skinned Duck Magret with Asian sauce

I love Duck, I cook it often whether a whole duck or duck breast it has such a lovely flavour and duck meat is very low in fat. Ducks have thick fatty skin a lot more than chicken or other poultry but when crisped up although naughty, it is oh so yummy. I am very fortunate as I live in Geneva very close to the French border so I can get very cheap duck magret.

You can use any duck breast for this recipe as duck magret is more expensive. Duck magret is the breast of a duck that has produced foie gras, by being force-fed unnaturally large amounts of high energy foods (mostly corn) to produce the fatty liver used to create foie gras. This tends to make the duck breasts themselves quite large, so if you are not buying magret duck make sure the breast is of good size. Duck goes well with a lot of sauces, more traditional are fruity ones like orange, fig or grape. But you can use duck in curries and stews which are great. I have posted this recipe as it is one of my son's favourites but keep checking for other duck recipes.


Marinade

2 Duck Breasts
2 Tablespoons Soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 Tablespoons honey
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
11/2 Teaspoons fresh Ginger,grated
1/4 Teaspoon 5 Spice

Sauce

Reserved Marinade
2 Tablespoons hoisin (extra)
1 Tablespoon honey (extra)
1 Teaspoon cornflour


Method

1. Combine all marinade ingredients and add duck, marinate several hours or overnight.

2. Remove duck from marinade and prick skin all over, reserve marinade for later use.
Heat fry pan add duck skin side down and cook until browned and crisp (a lot of fat will escape from duck, drain fat from pan several times while cooking skin) remove duck and place on wire rack breast side down and cook in pre-heated oven 190c for
25 Min's. Let rest for 5 Min's after cooking.

3. While duck is cooking make the sauce. Add reserved marinade, extra honey and hoisin to a saucepan bring to boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Mix cornflour with a little water add to pan and stir until mixture thickens.


Serve duck with either rice timbales or vegetables and noodles I made both so you could see what it looks like.

Serves 2

Rice Timbale Recipe

1/2 Cup white rice
20g butter
3-4 mushrooms, chopped into small pieces
1/2 small red pepper, chopped fine
2 Teaspoons fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh chives, chopped

1. Boil some water in a pan, add rice and boil until tender.

2. Melt butter in a fry pan, add chopped mushrooms and pepper and cook until soft. Add chopped herbs and rice and stir until heated.

3. Butter the inside of two moulds and press rice mixture into them, leave them for 5 Min's before turning out. You can also make these ahead of time and just reheat in the microwave before serving.



Vegetable Noodle Recipe

Olive oil
1 Large carrot, chopped into strips
100g Snow peas, chopped
100g Egg noodles
1 Clove garlic, crushed
1 Teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
3 Teaspoons soy sauce
11/2 Tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 Tablespoon of water


1. Cook noodles in a pan of boiling water until tender, drain and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a fry pan or wok add garlic and ginger stir fry for about 1 minute. Add carrots and cook for another minute, add sauces and water and cook for a couple of minutes more. Add snow peas and cook until vegetables are just tender.

3. Add noodles and stir until heated through.


Photo's taken by me unless otherwise stated