Le Chef's Kitchen

Today we’re going to roast a whole Long Island duck.  This duck is going to give us a number of wonderful meals:  roast duck breast (we get two), duck legs confit (again, two), and a duck soup (many portions).  We will also wind up with about 2 cups of rendered duck fat, which in cooking terms is basically liquid gold.  It will be used in the confit, and then will be saved to add to many meals to come:  roasted potatoes, sauteed vegetables, rice dishes, noodles…the list goes on.  The crispy duck wings should be eaten by the chef as a reward for 5 hours of hard work. Today we will be taking a $25 bird and converting it into a week’s worth of meals.  The first is Roast Duck with Malaysian Fried Rice (my attempt to mimic Fatty Crab’s fried rice…with relatively decent results, for shooting from the hip).

Our duck is going to be stuffed and seasoned with traditional Chinese spices, as well as a few odds and ends I had lying around.  It will be roasted for 5 hours at 300 degrees to render the breast fat and crisp the skin, and leave you with a falling-off-the-bone duck that you will want to tear into and eat with your hands as soon as it comes out of the oven (not recommended, as tempting as it may be).

In order to do this recipe properly, you will want to plan ahead.  This is for two reasons:

1) you will want to let your duck dry out in the fridge overnight.  This isn’t crucial, but it will help with a crispy skin.

2) day-old rice is better for fried rice.  Again, this isn’t crucial, but if you are planning a full day of cooking (5 hours in the oven) you may as well get everything ahead of time and get the best possible results, right?  If not, it will still work.  Just not as well.

If you can, buy a fresh (not previously frozen) duck.  I get mine at Citarella here in NYC, for $3.99/lb, which I find to be very reasonable.  The fat you get out of the duck alone, for confit purposes, costs $10 for 8 oz. from D’Artagnon.  At that rate, we get almost $20 worth of rendered fat from our duck alone, which is amazing.  If you use all the parts of the duck to the fullest, it’s the best $3.99/lb you’ll ever spend.

Roast Duck Breast with Malaysian Fried Rice (serves 4)

Ingredients

For the Duck:

• 1 5-lb Long Island Duck (the recipe can be adapted for just breasts, but you’re on your own as far as cooking time goes)
• 2 T Chinese 5-spice powder (which, in reality, has 7 spices in it…see below)
• 2 3-4 inch knobs of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced lengthwise
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 mandarin orange, quartered
• 3 T honey
• 3 T soy sauce
• 3 T hoisin sauce
• 3 T sesame oil
• sesame seeds

For the Rice:

• 4 cups cooked, day-old rice (I used brown…use your favorite)
• 3 T oil (peanut, grapeseed, vegetable)
• 2 inch knob ginger, peeled and finely minced
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 1 med onion, chopped
• 2 tsp shrimp paste* or 3 T XO sauce or 2T fish sauce*
• 2 green or red chilis, sliced thin (seeds removed for less heat)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 T soy sauce
• 3 T brown sugar

*shrimp paste is the traditional Malaysian way of doing it.  I didn’t have shrimp paste, but I did have some XO Sauce.  I wanted to add a bit of the seafood “funk” that goes along with Malay cooking, so I used this instead and it was delicious.  Substitute fish sauce as a last resort if you don’t want to buy shrimp paste or make XO sauce.

Procedure:

If you are preparing your bird the day before, place it in a roasting pan, breast side up, and allow to sit in the fridge overnight, uncovered, to dry.  If not, at least pat the bird dry with a paper towel and try to mop up any juices that seep out of the cavity.  In either case, remove the neck and/or giblets, and save for making broth later.

When you’re ready to cook, heat your oven to 300 degrees, and get your bird out of the fridge.  Season the interior of the duck’s cavity with Chinese 5 spice powder.  My Chinese 5 spice powder lists its ingredients as  “ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, pepper, thyme, star anise”, which is technically 7 spice.  If you can’t find pre-made 5 spice, go ahead and mix up your own with what you have in the pantry.  I believe that the ingredients in the list above should go in descending order, so you can use that as a guide for proportions.  If you have whole spices, toast them quickly in a dry pan and then grind them.  I’m sure it will be delicious.

Once the cavity is seasoned, stuff in the ginger, garlic cloves, and the quartered orange.

Next, make 10-15 small incisions in the duck breast to aid in the draining of the rendered fat.  The best way to do this without piercing the flesh is to go in at a shallow angle with a sharp knife and just penetrate the skin.

Put the bird in the oven, breast side down, for 1 hour.  Go have a cocktail, read a book, or watch your favorite Top Chef rerun.

After an hour, your bird should look like this:

Flip the bird (ha) over at this point, and put it back in for another hour.  The breast fat will really start to render at this point.  I usually drain it off every hour, just because I like to keep the duck fat clear and keep it from burning in the bottom of the pan.  This is up to you.

I had planned to show you how the bird looked after each hour, but my camera ran out of batteries, and I went to the park, so unfortunately I’ll just have to tell you about it.

Each hour check the bird, poke at the puffed up skin and help the fat drain by poking at pockets of fat.  You will do this for 4 hours.

During hour 4, mix together the hoisin, soy, honey, and sesame oil.  This will be your glaze for hour 5.  When the bird comes out of the oven after hour 4, brush the bird with the glaze and set your timer for 20 minutes.  Pull the bird out, reapply the glaze, and set for another 20 minutes.  Reapply.  The bird should be done, crispy and glazed, after 5 hours.

You should wind up with about half of your glaze left.  This will be the sauce that you serve with the duck.  Heat the remaining glaze in a small saucepan until just bubbling, but don’t burn it.

Meanwhile, during hour 5, you can be making your fried rice.

Procedure is very simple:

1) heat the oil in a skillet.  Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for 2-3 minutes.

2) add the onion, cook for 3-4 minutes

3) add the rice, and cook to desired crispiness.  I usually go for a good 15-20 minutes to crisp the rice, but if you don’t want it well done, cook for less time.

4) add the shrimp paste/fish sauce/xo sauce and stir to incorporate.

5) with a few minutes remaining, add the scallions and peppers.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, and get ready to serve.

6) dissolve the brown sugar in the soy sauce and reserve.

7) plate the rice, drizzle liberally with the soy and sugar mixture, and top with fresh cilantro.

Carve the duck breast  (you should get 4 portions, 1/2 duck breast each) and serve on top of the rice with the extra sauce on the side, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

You will of course be left, after this meal, with 1) 2 duck legs, 2) 2 cups of rendered duck fat and 3) a duck carcass.  Stay tuned for recipes utilizing all of these ingredients!