Recipe: Roast Drunken Duck (Hong Kong)

Roast Drunken Duck

Hong Kong
Makes 4 to 6 servings

Lucky Duck

Roast Drunken Duck If you live near a Chinese deli that sells roast ducks, you're in luck: You can enjoy a wonderful treat any time without running up a huge "duck bill"! Roasting duck the Chinese way is a real art. First, the birds are parboiled, melting away some of the fat. Then they're blown up with air and hung up to dry to tighten their skin. Finally, they're lacquered with a sweet glaze of honey, maltose, vinegar, and rice wine that caramelizes during roasting, making the skin crisp and brown. You can eat Cantonese roast duck at room temperature, or warm it in the oven. Serve it with the thin brown cooking sauce that's usually included at no extra charge, or shred the meat and use it to top a salad of greens tossed with a vinaigrette enriched either with a bit of the duck sauce, or with bottled plum sauce.

Here's my easy home-style version of Cantonese roast duck. It 's marinated in wine, filled with an aromatic stuffing, and finished of with a soy and hoisin glaze for a beautifully lacquered look.

Marinade
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
1/2 cup white wine or dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice

1 whole duck (3 to 3-1/2 lb.), cleaned
8 dried black mushrooms

Stuffing
2 tablespoons cooking oil
4 slices ginger, each the size of a quarter, julienned
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup shredded bamboo shoots
2 tablespoons thinly sliced Sichuan preserved vegetable
1/4 cup white wine
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce or char siu sauce

Glaze
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

Getting Ready
Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl. Rub duck inside and out with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Soak mushrooms in warm water to cover until softened, about 20 minutes; drain. Discard stems; thinly slice caps.

Prepare stuffing:
Place a wok over high heat until hot. Add oil, swirling to coat sides. Add ginger and garlic; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add onions and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and preserved vegetable; stir-fry for 2 minutes.

Add wine, five-spice, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce; cook for 1 minute. Let cool.

Place stuffing inside duck; use skewers to enclose.

Cooking
Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Place duck, breast side up, on a rack in a roasting pan. Bake until meat is no longer pink when cut near bone, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Increase heat to 475 degree F. Combine glaze ingredients in a bowl. Brush glaze over duck. Bake until skin is richly glazed, 5 to 7 minutes.

Martin Yan's Asia
Favorite Recipes from Hong Kong, Singapore,
Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan
By Martin Yan
KQED Books & Tapes
Paperback, $19.95
Color pictures throughout
ISBN: 0-912333-32-4
Recipe Reprinted by permission.