How to Roast Duck 🦆

 

Illustrated by Owen Lee

I got my flu shot yesterday on my left arm (deltoid), and it started aching so badly that I couldn’t sleep well overnight. When I woke up this morning, I decided to cook myself a delicious dish to recover from testing and advancing my immune system (the flu shot). Among the healthy dishes that I was contemplating, the roast duck from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe came to my mind. I enjoy watching his YouTube videos cooking so many authentic and mouthwatering dishes. Also, I loved watching hell’s kitchen.

Anyhow, I couldn’t find all the ingredients that he used. So, I had to improvise some. The steps that I took are more simplified. Cooking time is long, but the result is fabulous.

Ingredients:

·         Whole young duck (I bought it from Costco. It cost me about 25 dollars)

·         2 Ginger roots

·         Garlic

·         Dried anise

·         3 – 4 Green onions

·         Salt and pepper

·         Chinese 5 spices (aniseed, fennel, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper)

Ingredients for the dipping sauce:

·         Black bean paste (I didn’t have one, so I bought a solid black bean block called jjajang from a Korean store)

·         Diced garlic

·         Cooking oil

·         1 spoon of soy sauce

·         2 spoons of honey

·         1 spoon of white vinegar (I didn’t have rice vinegar)

·         100ml of water (I had to use water because I was using the solid black bean block)

Steps:

1.      Wash the duck and soak it in water + vinegar (3 spoons) + salt (one spoon) to drain and clean the duck for about 5 minutes.

2.      Wash it under running water and dry excess water with kitchen towel.

3.      Rub the inside of the duck with salt and pepper, and stuff it with green onion, 5 star anise, 5 pieces of peeled garlic and rough big chunks of 2 ginger roots (also peeled and cleaned).

4.      Bring out your 5-spice powder and rub against the out layer of the duck thoroughly (under the wings and legs).

5.      Preheat your oven to 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

6.      Place your duck on top of oven rack and place it inside the oven.

7.      Cook for 1 and half in 320 degrees then another 1 and half in 300 degrees.

8.      Take the duck out and rest it for 20 minutes.

9.      While you wait for your duck to rest, coat your sauce pan with 2 spoons of cooking oil in (medium heat).

10. Once the oil heats up, add the diced garlic and roll around until it is slightly cooked.

11. Add 2 spoons of soy sauce and stir it until you smell the scent of garlic and soy sauce (it will immediately sizzle).

12. Add your black paste block, honey and some water and stir it.

13. When the consistency is saucy, turn off the heat and transfer the sauce to a sauce bowl.

Enjoy your roast duck! The sauce is sweet with a kick of rich umami. The duck is tender on the inside and crispy on the outer layer. It pairs well with cucumber kimchi that I made which I will share the recipe in the future.