15.275 Roast Soy Duck with Mandarin Pancakes

Cycle 15 – Item 275

6 (Sun) October 2024

Roast Soy Duck with Mandarin Pancakes

3.5

by me

at home

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with the Family, the In-Laws

In the wake of the roast duck last week (see 15.268 Roast Duck – Cooked Cantonese(ish), Served Peking(ish)), which I’d regarded as a modest success, though W hasn’t stopped raving about it, she begged me to make it again and invited her parents over.

After 24 hours of marinating + 24 hours of drying.

For the marinade, I adapted the recipe from Made with Lau (see My Dad’s Soy Sauce Chicken).  I’ll list the ingredients below, if only as guide to future me (the amounts seem somewhat arbitrarily specific because the original recipe is given in imperial measurements, with a toggle function on the website that converts to metric – e.g., the amount of water = 20 oz, which converts to 567 ml, rounded up to 570 ml):

    • 570 ml water
    • 425 ml soy sauce
    • 2 TB dark soy sauce
    • 4 TB Shaoxing wine
    • 4 TB rice wine
    • 100 g sugar
    • 2 tsp 5-spice powder
    • 1 tsp MSG
    • 2 stalks large scallions (roughly chopped)
    • 1 onion (roughly chopped)
    • 1 bulb ginger (sliced)
    • 8 cloves garlic (roughly smashed)

FRIDAY.  Everything added to a pot, brought to boil, then taken off heat.  Holding the duck by the neck over the pot, the marinade ladled over the entire bird a few times – hot liquid constricts the surface of the skin to facilitate a more even marination (or so they say).  The duck placed on a rack, while the marinade set aside to cool.  At room temperature, the marinade poured into a bag along with the duck, vacuum sealed.  Marinated for 24 hours in the fridge, flipping over every 6 hours (or so).

SATURDAY.  The duck removed from the bag (marinade discarded), placed on a rack, and left to dry out in the fridge for 24 hours.

SUNDAY.  The duck taken out of the fridge, sat on the counter for 2 hours to come to room temperature, tied with twine, roasted for 60 minutes breast down at 180 C + 20 minutes breast up at 160 C + 10 minutes broiled.

No bits of scorched dry rub.

Much improved this time.   With the extra seasonings in the marinade, especially the five-spice powder, the flavor was much more distinctly Cantonese.  Without the dry rub, the skin was more evenly cooked, though it still didn’t get crispy.  Nevertheless, I had to admit to myself that it was quite good all around.

Whereas 1 piece of parchment paper is required to make a spread of 8 smashburgers for 4 people – previously, I’d estimated that a 300-piece pack would last about 12.5 years, at a rate of 2 applications per month (see 15.135 Double Oklahoma Onion Smashburgers) – a duck spread with 16 wraps for 4 people requires 16 pieces of parchment paper (2 pieces, top and bottom, for 8 pairs), so the pack would last a little over 9 months (just under 9 months if combined with the burgers).

Another breakthrough was the acquisition of a tortilla press.   Same initial steps as before (see 15.205 Mushu Shrimp with Hand-Made Pancakes): rolling out the dough into a log, cutting it into 16 equal pieces, rolling them into balls then pressing the balls into flattened discs, brushing 8 of the discs with oil on the top side and topping each with another disc.  But at this point, rather than using a pin to roll out each pair of discs, which takes time and space and extra flour and constant rotating, I placed a piece of parchment on the base of the press, put a pair of discs in the middle, topped them with another piece of parchment paper, then lowered the top of the press with the lever to flatten the discs into a perfectly round, super thin pair, each requiring less than 10 seconds.  Now protected between the layers of parchment paper, the pairs of discs were placed in a pile and set aside until ready to cook.  With this shortcut, I could pump out double the number of pancakes within a couple of additional minutes (not counting cooking time, which remains the same).

The red tortilla warmer is also a new acquisition – both purchased with the intent to make Mexican tortillas, but working very nicely in a Chinese context.

Looking back through prior DUCK + BY ME posts, I was reminded of my first attempt at roasting a whole duck (see 12.116 Undescribed Roast Duck).  Having “just free-styled the whole thing,” the post doesn’t provide any specifics but does show various ingredients, including maltose, which I’ve seen in some recipes as an agent to promote crispy skin, and annatto oil, which is used in Filipino cuisine to enhance red color (see for example 4.299 Chicken Inasal).   I’ll try incorporating these elements next time.

16 pancakes were woefully inadequate, not only in relation to the volume of duck but more because of everyone’s enthused response – I limited myself to just one.

(See all GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

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