Peking Duck Breast...the Challenge

It was 3:30pm on a Saturday and we had no dinner plans.  What was one to do? Peking duck for dinner, of course!

I always wanted to see if it was possible to emulate Peking duck but with only duck breasts that one often find at an everyday grocery store.  And this is what I learnt.

Peking Duck Breast

After looking through a number of recipes online, there are a few recipes out there but I had to say none had the final product that I was thinking of.  I again combined a few ideas and hoped for the best outcome.

I marinated with star anise, Chinese five spice, xiao xing wine, vinegar etc., similar to the one for roast squab. One problem was that I only had a couple hours to marinate the breasts.  Then, with a hair dryer, I tried to speed up the drying process.  I read that in the classic recipe, the duck would be poured over continuously with boiling ginger and spring onion-flavoured water prior to roasting.  So I did that for 5 minutes.  After roasting for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, they came out looking quite promising, but missing the crispy skin.  I then used a hand torch to toast the skin further to see if that would give me a crispy skin. It did darkened the skin further but it was  sadly not crispy.

The problem may have been these were Magret duck breasts which were quite fatty since these ducks also produced foie gras. There was an excess amount of fat under the skin.

They were served with spring onions (beautifully curled in iced water prior), cucumber and hoisin sauce.  We wrapped them in either Bibb lettuce or Tortilla wrap.  The flavour was a little weak and the meat a little overcooked.

Was it Peking duck? No.  Did we enjoy it? Yes.  Especially the next day!  Next time I really need to try a whole duck.

Shrimp Chowder Lite

This was a recipe I had been saving for a while. Unfortunately I could not find fresh head-on shrimps in my local grocery stores that day and I really needed to head home to start my duck.  I decided to use frozen shrimps.

The shrimp broth was weak even I used more shells and reduced from over 2 litres to less than 1 litre.  I would imagine with the heads the broth would have a stronger flavour.  I did try to do a "lite" version so half and half cream was used and only a touch of heavy cream.  This is also the low carb version without the potatoes.  The consistency reminded me of  Thai coconut soups but without the coconut flavour.  It was definitely light but had a nice kick with the cayenne pepper.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Maine-Shrimp-Chowder-

Duck 6.5/10
Soup 7/10