Duck Pancake Rolls

I love duck pancake rolls, it's my favourite thing to get from the Chinese although I can't even remember the last time I actually got a Chinese because let's be honest they are generally a  disappointment and I always end up feeling a bit sick so making my own was the only way to go.

 

To do proper Chinese roast duck it takes many hours but I just did two duck legs which I pricked the skin of, poured boiling water over and then dried with a hairdryer to make the skin as crispy as possible. I then covered the skin in honey and Chinese five spice powder before slow roasting in the oven.

After around an hour in the oven the skin was crispy and fell off the bone. I was naughty and bought the pancakes and Hoi Sin sauce from the local Asian supermarket.

 

They were just as delicious as the ones from the takeaway and I had ten of them, yes that's right ten.

 

 Now go make some of your own and eat ten or maybe even twelve, go crazy!

It's been so long, here is a bit of everything!

Sorry for being a bad blogger and not posting anything for awhile, I have been very busy with my new job and life and stuff but have been taking a few photo's here and there of lovely food I have made so here are Lot's of things in one post!


I made a lemon tart with puff pastry instead of shortcrust as that is all I had but it was bloody gorgeous. I used un-waxed organic lemons, double cream, melted butter, eggs and extra egg yolks and icing sugar to make my tart.


This is a chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella and wrapped in parma ham that I roasted in the oven with spicy chorizo and vine tomatoes. I served it with wilted spinach and a proper baked potato, I hate microwave baked potatoes they are a disgrace!


Here is the start of my roast chicken and veg soup that I made using left over roast chicken, homemade chicken stock and Lot's of leeks, carrots, butternut squash, cabbage and whatever other veg I could find


Yummy roast chicken and veg soup


I didn't make this but I had to show you guys a photo, it was my boyfriend's Birthday and lot's of us went to his friends Thai restaurant for dinner and I had stuffed squid and it came out with this amazing carved bird on the side! Apparently one of the chefs spends hours carving animals out of carrots in his spare time and they use for decoration, fabulous!


A pile of beautiful wild mushrooms foraged by my Mother and given to me to use in my cooking.


I got a duck crown and roasted it stuffed with apples and onions and put whole apples that I cored in for good measure.


I somehow managed to delete the picture of my whole roasted duck because I am a fool but I can assure you it was lovely.


I served it with braised red cabbage, duck fat roast potatoes and redcurrant gravy.

I will be doing a proper post very soon!

Roasted Duck Breast with Fondant Potaoes, Sauteed Greens and a Cranberry and Red wine Reduction

Yea that's right I roasted some duck breast, made fondant potatoes and a reduction and it wasn't even a special occasion, it was just a Wednesday.


I got two beautiful organic free range duck breast's and seared them skin side down to render the fat to cook my fondant potatoes in.


I have never made fondant potatoes before so looked at a few different recipes on the Internet to get the basic idea. I did not bother with the traditional barrel shape as it was only a Wednesday so opted to cut two large potatoes into three and flatten the ends, you should really make sure they all the same size but I did not do this and I recommend you do as obviously some of my potatoes cooked faster than other's, rookie mistake.



Once the potatoes had been cooked in the duck fat for around 20 minutes so they were crispy with a lovely golden brown colour I added the stock and some freshly milled pepper.


After the searing of the duck I put them in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, then covered them in foil to rest while the potatoes cooked. I in fact let them rest for nearly an hour and they were the most succulent and delicious duck breast I have ever eaten, they were like duck flavoured butter.




I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures of the reduction/jus being made but it was just a very simple recipe of red wine, brown sugar, cranberry sauce and some of the juices that had leaked from the duck as it rested all simmered together until it reduced by around half.


This was a really delicious treat and although I won't be cooking like this every day of the week sometimes it's just worth it.

Crispy duck stir fry and prawn toast

After the very carb filled start to my week I felt like something a bit healthier and found some organic duck legs on special offer so decided to make a stir fry with them.
I nevcr buy stir fry sauces and have always done pretty much the same thing every time I make my sauce by just adding sesame oil, dark soy sauce, fish sauce and sweet chili sauce and it's never failed me yet.



To make my stir fry I pan fried the duck legs before roasting them in the oven and when they were done I let them rest before chopping into bite size chunks and accidentally eating all the crispy skin.....



I have never made prawns toast's before and I really love them but it can be very much hit and miss when you order them from the takeaway so I thought I would have a go at making them myself. I just minced prawns with pork mince, ginger, sesame oil and a pinch of salt and sugar before frying them in sesame oil. Here is a picture of them before they got fried.



To make my stir fry I just used up what ever veg I had in the fridge so we ended up with carrots, beansprouts, sweetcorn, red and yellow pepper, spring greens, red onion and of course the crispy duck all doused in soy sauce, fish sauce and chili sauce. I did get a couple of spring rolls for Mercer as he hates seafood but I didn't make them





Sorry the photo's are not that great but it's hard with a rubbish camera phone, oh well it's my Birthday soon and I think I have dropped enough hints to Mercer.....