I did say I was doing more cooking this year! Hopefully I can come up with more recipes. Heheh.

I’ve mentioned in the past that my father DaddyChef is an ex-Cantonese chef, has worked in many restaurants and was once a head chef – Gordon Ramsey style (as in lots of swearing and volcano eruptions in the kitchen – I heard this from MummyGeek). Back in his days I think Gordon Ramsey style was an in thing for chefs. ¬,¬” Thankfully I have never seen him in a restaurant’s kitchen, otherwise I think I would have keeled over by now. Heheh.

Well one recipe which DaddyChef has taught MummyGeek is how to roast a duck. Cantonese Hong Kong style. And I’ve loved this recipe since I was very small. 

With permission from my parents (as this recipe is quite popular – but not the exact same ingredients are used throughout) I’m posting this version on my blog. I wonder if DaddyChef had any disciples that know this version…

– Small to medium sized duck (if frozen, defrost this overnight). We used a large duck here and a couple of smaller ones later.

– 3-4 Crushed Star aniseed (you can use the powder version if you can’t find this OR use hoisin sauce OR charsiu sauce)

– 2-3 tablespoons of Chinese Five Spices

– Garlic (1 teaspoon) dried or fresh

– 2-3 Spring onions chopped

– 1 small chunk of Ginger chopped

– 2-3 tablespoons of salt (use less salt for a smaller duck)

– Half a mug of White wine vinegar or any type of vinegar can be used

– 2 heaped spoons of Maltose (if you can’t get this use Golden Syrup as suggested by my parents)

– Water

– Metal (or wooden) skewers 

– Metal hanger – you can find in cooking shops or make your own using metal coat hangers

So the recipe is in photo order. Good luck.

1. Gather the ingredients, duck and utensils… salt is not in this picture

2. Add the garlic and crushed star aniseed

3. Then add the chopped ginger and spring onions. We used a blender to chop everything. Easiest way!

4. Add the five spices.

5. And finally the salt. Mixed these ingredients well with a spoon.

6. If you have bought your duck whole and frozen you may get a duck with its head still attached! Yeek. If you don’t want to roast the duck head, then I suggest you chop it off. Disgusting to do I know.
Take the duck out of its packing. Start washing the duck in cold water.

7. From the bottom end, there is hole where they have gutted the duck and may have left the kidneys and stuff inside a plastic bag – if you see this, take the bag out and discard.

8. Keep washing the duck. Now take the wings and make them into folded arms on the back (not the breast side – this is the meaty part)

9. If you have chopped off the neck or if there is an opening on the head side use a skewer and sew the skin and meat together… so prick, twist the skin and meat over the skewer and then prick again. Repeat until the opening is completely sealed.

10. At the bottom end, add the stuffing. You may use your hand or a spoon and spread the stuffing around the inside.

11. Then again as with the neck, seal the bottom with a skewer.

Ta da! Isn’t my mum cool!

12. Heat a wok or a massive pan and add water. Boil the water.

 13. Add the duck into the wok and start bathing it! Yes, give it a bath!!

14. Add the vinegar into the water.

15. Then add the maltose into the water. This sugary syrup is really tough! So put some strength into it to get load out. >.<""

16. Make sure you coat both sides of the duck with the water – do this for about 10 minutes. This gives the skin a crispy sweet coating at the end of roasting. ^_^

17. DaddyChef made these metal hooks using metal hangers. So cool! And inexpensive!
Put the metal hangers underneath the duck wings.

18. Now hang to dry – add newspaper on the floor in case it falls or lots of fluids come off. If you are doing this at night, let it dry overnight. If from morning, then a good 5 to 8 hours is recommended depending on the size of the duck.

19. After a long time of drying place the duck on a baking tray with a rack on top so that the juices can drip into the tray.

Here’s some extra duck legs we bought…

20. Preheat your oven to gas mark 8 or 9 – depending on what type of oven you have really. Highest heat gives the best result. It is recommended that you have a gas oven to roast this.
Roast for about 20-25 minutes depending on the size of the duck.

21. Now take out the duck and turn the tray over to roast on the other side. Roast again for 20-25 minutes.

22. Take the duck out again and now turn over to roast the back of the duck. Repeat roasting as above (steps 20 and 21).

23. Now it’s night time…
Completely remove the duck and leave to cool before eating!! Remove the metal skewers before chopping up. ^_^

Forgot to turnover the duck legs… but tasted ok.

And here’s another smaller two ducks that we bought from ASDA… but were kind of rubbish because they chopped of the legs and so it was harder to seal one end – improvising was needed here using several metal skewers and string.

Now it’s your turn!! Roast that duck away. Yum yum!!

Happy geeky cooking!! … if you still get stuck cooking this then I suggest you have a look on YouTube for some tips.