L. wanted Peking duck and, if ever a recipe belonged under the heading "a labor of love", that is it. From the many steps involved in preparing the duck, including separating the skin from the flesh with a bicycle pump for maximum skin crispiness, to the fiddly nature of the Mandarin pancakes which must be communion wafer thin, it seemed like a lot to accomplish - despite, let me add, my deep and abiding love for my son.
We compromised by agreeing that I would work on a recipe in homage of Peking duck and I think the end result turned out well. I brined the duck with spices in order to get all of the Peking duck flavors in there, updated the scallion garnish that comes with Peking duck by making chunkier scallion pancakes instead of the usual accompanying paper thin ones (with the added bonus that scallion pancakes stand up to a teenager's appetite better as well) and turned the cucumber garnish into a crunchy pre-meal salad. Throw a bit of store-bought hoisin sauce into the mix and we were ready to go!
First I made a brine with salt, sugar, bay leaf, fennel seed, black peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns, cardamom pods, cinnamon bark and star anise.
Then the duckling took an 8-hour bath in the brine, completely submerged - this jaunty display was for purposes of illustration.
Eight hours later I removed the duckling from the brine and placed it on my stand in the sink. I boiled up the brine and poured it over the duckling to tighten the skin. I then placed the duckling in a 400 degree preheated oven, in a deep baking pan with 1/2 cup of water in it. I cooked it for 2 hours, rotating every 30 minutes so that the color would be consistent.
The end result was burnished and, most importantly, really crispy. I let it have a 15 minute rest before carving it and cutting the skin into squares.
While the duck was cooking, I got on with the scallion pancakes and this time, once I had gone through the usual process of rolling and twisting, I decided to cut out mini scallion pancakes instead of free forming them.
I did pretty well for myself in the stuff-your-face department but L. really enjoyed the dish. Here is an image of the second plate of pancakes and duck after he was done.
Scallion pancake recipe, here.
How to cook a duck, here.