Test attempt at roast duck for CNY dinner

Taste was excellent. Skin is so so. But good first start. I think good enough that CNY dinner itself will be my second attempt.

First make a 3.5 liter brine with 1.5 liter classic coca cola, 2 litre water, 170g salt, a few tablespoons of  sugar, 10-15 shakes of fish sauce, 2 medium oranges (juice and pulp added), 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 garlic bulb (halved), and some orange liquorice sweets I bought from China. Boil all together except the coke and make sure salt is dissolved. Then add the coke (cold from fridge). Let the mix cool and then put it into fridge to bring it down further.

Trim the duck, then add it to the cold brine overnight.

Remove from brine, drain duck and pat dry.

Prick skin all over (not sure if I should have done this before the slow roast or after - oh well).

Stuff cavity with one large orange.

Stick it in the oven and roast at 80C for 8-9 hours.

Take out of oven. Cool the duck with a fan airflow. Then stick in the the fridge for several hours at least.

Take duck out of fridge and let it warm up gradually (couple of hours). Cover any parts that are likely to overcook in the next step (wings and any holes in skin or cavity).

Crank oven to 300C. Then bring it down to 275C with fan. Open all windows and close the kitchen door (it will smoke).

Put duck in. And watch carefully. It should only take about 10-12 mins.

Take out duck. Cool 15-20 mins before carving.

 

 

 

After carving. Forgot to take photo pre-carve.

after the slow roast.

Stuffed peppers

Saw a bunch of small bell peppers being sold in NTUC. Was tempted to do stuffed peppers.

Filling is (from memory): minced pork, toasted whole fennel/cumin, pepper salt/fish sauce, a little soup stock, dash of sesame oil, a little oil from frying dried prawns (did not use the prawns), fried garlic, wan sui, spring onions, finely chopped shitake mushrooms, one egg, dash of sake and sweet wine. Hey, and the kitchen sink too.

Slow roasted about 40 mins at 95C (monitored internal temp till about 78C). Then cranked the oven to grill.

Result, very tender and sweet bell peppers with a savory fill. Worth repeating. Had a lot of excess which I froze - I expect they are easily gently reheated with little effect.

Note for next time:
1. filling is difficult as the peppers are small (many of the peppers weren't fully filled. Find a tool or use last finger next time.

2. Stuck the caps on, but it tends to fall out. If I'm serious about presentation, will need to find a way to keep the caps on. The fill is sticky, but not sticky enough (brush egg white around cap and run a torch very briefly over to seal the cap?).