Peking duck - general principles and methods of preparation
To cook a Peking duck according to the classic Chinese recipe at home is quite difficult. This will require not only knowledge of special secrets, but also a lot of specific ingredients and kitchen appliances. For example, such as a compressor for separating skin from meat, a special press, squeezing juice for duck skeleton broth, or a wood stove in which the bird is roasted.
There are several ways to make a real Peking duck. In the first case, it is suspended over a fire, for the maintenance of which branches of fruit trees are used. In this case, the bird is obtained with a beautiful shiny reddish crust, delicate meat and a pleasant fruity aroma. In the second case, it is fried in a closed oven. At first, under great fire, then it is gradually reduced. So the skin is especially tasty and crispy, and the meat is appetizing. There was another cooking method, which is now almost never used - duck carcass was pierced with a large fork and fried, holding over a fire.
To cook a Peking duck by restaurant technology is not particularly necessary, because and baked at home, flavored with spices, honey and sauce, it turns out very, very tasty. It is served with pancakes, various sauces, among which must be Khoysin, fresh cucumber, feathers of green onions.
Peking duck - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Peking Duck with Pancakes
If it’s difficult to cook a duck according to the classic recipe, you just want to serve it according to all rules. Therefore, in addition to meat, we bake pancakes and cut a cucumber. The process of making Peking duck is not fast, but the result compensates for everything.
Ingredients: duck - 2-2.5 kg, 4 tbsp. lie honey (liquid), 100ml dry red wine, 5 tablespoons. soy sauce, 1 table each. vegetable oil, ground ginger and black pepper, salt. Dough for pancakes: 2 eggs, an incomplete glass of water and milk, 1.5 stack. flour, a bunch of green onions, 2 tablespoons. vegetable oil. For the decoration of the dish: 2 fresh cucumbers, soy sauce.
Cooking method
Preparing the duck. The gutted carcass must be doused with steep boiling water on all sides. Ideally, the bird is hung on a hook and watered with boiling water, but at home the hook is difficult to find in the kitchen, so you can put the carcass in the sink. Dry with a napkin and rub with salt. Then the ducklings are planted on a jar or glass and sent to the refrigerator for twelve hours. Juice will flow from it, so under a glass you should substitute wide dishes or a plate.
Cooking Seal the duck in foil and put on a wire rack. Under the grid should substitute a baking sheet, on which pour a glass of water. Transfer the entire structure to the oven and bake for one hour (190-200C).
For the sauce, mix oil, ginger, pepper and 4 tbsp. tablespoons of soy sauce.
Remove the duck from the oven, remove the foil, and grease with the prepared sauce. Cover the paws and legs of the bird with foil and send to the oven for another half an hour, raising the temperature to 250C.
Cook another sauce. Mix honey and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. After extracting ducklings from the oven, we cover them with the whole carcass. The bird is ready.
Bake pancakes. They can be prepared in advance while the duck is sunbathing in the oven. Mix all the ingredients for the dough, including vegetable oil, add chopped green onions and bake thin pancakes.
Everything is ready, it remains only to arrange the presentation of the dish. Peel the cucumbers, cut into long cubes and put on a plate. Pour soy sauce into the bowl. Next to put a plate with pancakes. Cut small pieces of meat from a duck, necessarily capturing part of the skin. Chinese cooks cut more than a hundred pieces from one duck. It is not necessary to strive for this, the main thing is to get beautiful non-thick slices.
They eat the dish like this: they smear the pancake with sauce, put meat, cucumber on it and wrap the filling.
Recipe 2: Peking Duck in Orange Sauce
The meat of a real Peking duck should have a sweetish taste, so it is not rubbed with garlic and hot pepper. When serving, the meat slices are wrapped in a pancake, but in the modern version, you can use pita bread.
Ingredients: duck carcass in 2 kg, 3 tablespoons each. soy sauce and honey, 2 tablespoons of cognac, a glass of orange juice, 1 zest of orange, salt, pepper - 1 teaspoon, 0.5 teaspoon. Ginger
Cooking method
Grate the carcass with salt, inside, and sprinkle with cognac. Put the duck in a pan and put it in the cold overnight. Grease a rested bird with a mixture of honey and grated zest, let it rest for another three or four hours.
Then the duck is wrapped in foil, put on a baking sheet and baked for about an hour and a half (200C). Turn over the carcass during frying. If there is a lot of fat, it is collected in a glass or jar.
Prepare the sauce: mix the juice, ginger, soy sauce, pepper and two tablespoons of duck fat. Release the duck from the foil, coat with sauce. Wrap wings and paws back in foil, and bake until browning for about forty minutes at 220-240С. Cut the warm carcass into slices.
The dish with pancakes (pita bread), soy sauce, cucumber, green onions is decorated and served.
Recipe 3: Peking Duck
Prepared in this way, ducklings are obtained with a rich taste, close to the taste of a real Peking duck. This is facilitated by prolonged pickling of the bird in a special sauce. The composition of which includes dark soy sauce and sesame oil.
Ingredients: duck carcass - 2-2.5 kg, 3 table. lie honey, salt. Marinating sauce: 1 table. lie sesame (vegetable) oil and honey, 2 tables. lie dark soy sauce. Hoisin sauce: 1 table. lie sesame (vegetable) oil, 3 tables. lie dark soy sauce, 1 teaspoon each. lie wine vinegar, garlic powder and hot chili pepper, salt, 5 spices to taste (Chinese seasonings).
Cooking method
Grate the carcass with salt and leave to salted overnight.
The next day it is cooked, and this process begins with a hot bath for ducks. It is necessary to dip it several times in a bucket of boiling water or pour it well from the kettle. Drain. Take a syringe with a thick needle, and piercing the skin, drive air under it, separating the skin from the meat. The syringe in this case acts as a compressor. Then spread with honey and leave for an hour.
Prepare the marinating sauce. Soy sauce, oil, honey, mix and spread with this mixture the bird every half hour for four hours, i.e. it turns out eight to nine times. And lubricate inside too. If the sauce is not enough, do it again.
Preheat the oven (250C). Build a structure in it: pour water into a baking sheet, a couple of centimeters deep, install a grate on top, grease it with oil, put a duck on the grate. Fry for forty minutes, then lower the temperature to 160C, and leave for another hour. Then turn the bird over and bake for another half hour.
If you could not buy a real Hoisin sauce, you can make it at home by mixing the necessary components. Slice and serve the bird with Khoysin, pancakes, cucumber, green onions.
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