Ron’s Five-Spice Chinese Braised Duck

The photos say it all ... You’ll most certainly want to make this recipe as soon as you finish reading the recipe! Ron slightly modified this dish from one titled Oil-Braised Duck (The Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking, Octopus Books Limited, London, 1980). Although time-consuming, this delicious duck and its wonderful sauce are surprisingly easy to prepare.  

Ron’s Five-Spice Chinese Braised Duck:

One 4-to-4-1/2 lb. (1.75-to-2 kg) duckling, cleaned and plucked
1/4 c. (60 mL) orange juice
2 tbsp. (30 mL) granulated sugar
1/4 c. (60 mL) soy sauce
4 tsp. (20 mL) salt
1/4 c. (60 mL) dry sherry
1 tbsp. (15 mL) white vinegar
1/2 tsp. (2.5 mL) five-spice powder
1 slice fresh ginger root, peeled, about 3 x 1/2 in. (7.6 x 1.2 cm)
2-1/2 c. chicken stock (625 mL)
A few tbsp. cornstarch, as required, to thicken cooking liquid
Approximately 5 c. (1.25 L) peanut oil for deep-fat frying
1 large orange, unpeeled, halved and sliced, as garnish
Parsley bunches, as garnish (optional)

Read recipe carefully and have all ingredients assembled before you begin. In a large pot over high heat, plunge duckling into enough boiling water to cover. Boil 4 min. Drain. 

After boiling away fat, transfer duckling to clean pot.

Transfer duckling to clean pot, adding all remaining ingredients except cornstarch, oil, and garnishes. Bring just to a boil before lowering heat. 

Cover and simmer 45 min., turning duckling at least twice during cooking. Remove duckling from pot, draining and drying very thoroughly. Cooking liquid is the basis of the sauce for the duckling: Treat it with loving care. Over low heat, simmer liquid, uncovered, to reduce and thicken it. 

Simmer cooking liquid to reduce and thicken it.

Over medium-high stove setting, heat oil in wok to a depth of about 4 in. (10 mL) (see Note). Carefully and securely lower duckling into oil (Ron uses a meat fork to do this). 

Carefully and securely lower duckling into oil.

Oil will bubble around lower half of duckling and inside cavity. 

Oil will bubble inside and outside duckling.

Also carefully and securely, turn duckling over to brown on all sides. This will take about 5 min.

Turn duckling.

Turn again, until duckling is entirely browned.

When duckling is crisp and golden, remove from hot oil. 

Remove from hot oil; drain well.

Transfer wok or deep-fat fryer to a safe, stable spot away from pets and children’s reach. Let oil cool for later safe disposal or straining and recycling. 

Return duckling to simmering sauce, turning several times to coat. 

Sauce will reduce and thicken. For further

thickening, add cornstarch.

If sauce appears too thin, decant about 1/4 c. (60 mL) to small bowl, cooling before stirring in cornstarch, as needed. Return cooled liquid to simmering sauce, blending in well until sauce thickens as desired.

Remove coated duckling from sauce. Transfer to chopping block, sectioning into small pieces with cleaver or heavy knife. 

Ron sections duckling into small pieces.

Heap chopped duckling onto serving platter.

Onto the platter goes the duckling!

Pour hot sauce over duckling. 

Onto the duckling goes the sauce!

Garnish with orange slices and parsley. Serve at once. 

Garnished duckling.

This dish is extremely rich. Ron recommends you keep your servings small. Serves 8-to-10 as main course.   

Note: Home-use deep-fat fryers are safer than oil-filled woks, but produce less satisfactory results. The maximum temperature of the oil in a deep-fat fryer is often lower than the temperature of the oil in a wok on the stove’s highest setting. The duckling may also not fit into a home-use deep-fat fryer. Use extreme caution when deep-fat frying. Allow enough room for the oil’s displacement as you lower the duckling into the wok or deep-fat fryer. 

Curried Cod with Potato Stacks

The first time I made this outstanding recipe, everything slid onto the floor as I transferred the stacks of vegetables and fish from the skillet to the serving dishes. A lesson learned: If you want the great presentation this recipe deserves, buy a set of baking rings to hold everything together.

I last used these rings for another excellent dish: Crab and Fennel Potato Towers. My baking rings are 3-½ in. (9 cm) wide and 1 in. (2.54 cm) high. They turn a good recipe like this into a great one!

Because a relatively large proportion of this recipe uses vegetables, this is an economical dish to make. The chunk of cod I bought for slightly more than $2 serves four or five adult diners - a genuine bargain! With taste, economy, and speed of preparation in mind, this recipe is a keeper! Served with a first-course salad, it’s also a complete and fully satisfying meal.  

Curried Cod with Potato Stacks: 

1/4 c. (60 mL) butter or margarine, melted
1 tsp. (5 mL) curry powder
1 tbsp. (15 mL) fresh lemon juice
One 11 oz. (312 g) cod, basa, snapper, barramundi or similar white fish, cut into 4 or 5 fillets
1 large red-skinned potato, skin left on and sliced thin
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 carrot, scraped but not peeled, angle-sliced
2 tbsp. (30 mL) red bell pepper (“capsicum”), diced
2 tbsp. (30 mL) yellow bell pepper (“capsicum”), diced
Dash salt and freshly ground pepper
1-1/2 c. (375 mL) chicken, fish, or vegetable stock
2 tbsp. (10 mL) frozen peas, thawed

Combine butter, curry powder, and lemon juice in shallow plate or dish. Add fish, turning to coat both sides. Set aside in refrigerator. 

Turn to coat second side; refrigerate.

Place four or five baking rings in large skillet (see Note). Into each, stack potatoes, onions, carrots, bell peppers, and seasoning. Add stock. Over medium-high heat, bring just to the boil. Cover skillet, reducing heat to medium-low. Simmer 10 min., until potatoes are tender-firm but not cooked through. 

Stack vegetables in rings; add stock to skillet.

Simmer 10 min., until potato slices are tender-firm.

Top each stack with chunk of lightly curried fish, adding buttery marinade to stock. Re-cover skillet: Simmer a further 5 min., allowing fish to steam. 

Top potato stacks with fish; add marinade to stock in skillet.

Sprinkle peas inside baking rings, over and around fish. Re-cover skillet, heating peas through 1-to-2 min. Slip a wide spatula under baking rings, transferring potato-fish stacks to serving plates or bowls.  Remove baking rings.

Re-covering skillet just until peas heat through. 

Decant simmering stock from skillet to small jug. Pour hot stock over and around each potato-fish stack immediately before serving. 

Note: The inside diameter of your skillet determines how much stock to use. I used a large skillet with an inside diameter of 9-1/2 in. (24 cm).My skillet has sloping sides, so its outside diameter is about 2 in. (29 cm) greater. 

Pour lightly curried stock over and around fish. 

Dinner Party Series: An Elegant High Tea

While this isn’t a “Dinner Party” per se, it falls under the indexed series of the same name that refers to home entertaining.

When I recently gave an English tea party for a dozen female friends, we began the afternoon with dry sherry, moved on to Cream Scones, enjoyed a selection of dainty sandwiches, and finished with freshly made pastries from the bakery across the street from my house.

Alas! Tea sandwiches become soggy if they’re made too soon, so I prepared them shortly before our guests arrived, and didn’t have time to take even one photo before and during the party. I’m sorry about that, so you’ll have to imagine the table, set in white and cream, with silver candlesticks. It was lovely - but more importantly, it was fun! 

Should you ever give a high tea (or another high tea, if you’ve already had one or more), I have some suggestions, below. As regular readers will know from the irreverent nature of this blog, fun is important to me. Whether in cooking or in life, spontaneous laughter makes us happy and keeps us feeling young. 

I once gave a Dinosaur Tea (as in T-Rex). My reasoning for this was that “Only dinosaurs serve high tea!” The invitations and other little touches (including tiny plastic dinosaurs that served as place cards) used a dinosaur theme. However, I’ve also attended the stiff-upper-lip type of tea. Each was equally enjoyable.

I once had high tea at Claridge’s in London, only to learn that the Queen Mother had left five minutes before my arrival. Perhaps she couldn’t wait ...? 

High tea served at home has its limitations. With many last-minute things to do before the tea I hosted a few days ago, serving warm Cream Scones was too much for me, though no one seemed to mind that the scones were at room temperature. These scones are so good that you don’t need an excuse to make them. 

If you do give a fancy afternoon tea for a group, these at-home tips work for me:

• Write the name of each guest on a paper doily on the saucer immediately under his or her teacup. No more mix-ups and lost tea cups!

• Brew a large urn of black tea, making sure you remove the tea bags once the tea reaches its desired strength. Refilling a teapot from an urn is much faster than trying to brew tea pot-by-pot. Ensure you also have a kettle of boiling water ready to be decanted into a fancy teapot, so guests can brew their choice of herbal teas, as well. Although most guests want tea at a tea party, some prefer coffee. Prepare a small amount in your coffee maker. 

In summary, you’ll need one attractive coffee pot and two attractive teapots (one containing black tea; the other containing boiling water). I also offer the option of decaf coffee. Because decaf tends to be the last choice guests usually seek at a tea party, I don’t brew a pot of it, instead making it by the cup and by request in a single-serve coffee maker. 

• Use your computer to make several labels to help your guests find what they need. Have your local stationery store laminate and punch a hole in each label, so you can keep them from party-to-party, tied to your teapots and coffee pot with dainty little ribbons. Mine read “Boiling Water,” “Caffeinated Tea,” “Caffeinated Coffee/Decaf Available on Request.” These labels also work splendidly for buffets. 

• Leave a small dish for guests to drop their herbal tea bags. If you wet and leave a squeezed tea bag in the dish before the party begins, they’ll know what the dish is for. 

• Allow a total of 3 slices of bread per-person, with the slices cut into rounds, triangles, squares, or rolled and later filled. Using both brown and white bread is more interesting than using white bread alone. Be sure to buy long loaves of square-sided sandwich bread, rather than regular bread. Mandatory: Cut the crusts from your bread! Mine are in the freezer as we speak, ready to be turned into next Thanksgiving’s turkey stuffing. 

• At my tea, I had separate plates of sandwiches and pastries labelled “Gluten-Free.” All of this will become second nature as you start to entertain more frequently. 

• What kind of tea sandwiches to serve? Tradition suggests that “ladies” should not be exposed to harsh flavors. Thus, no pickles, olives, smoked or spiced meats. No chutneys, mustard, horseradish, or whole nuts. Prepare your sandwich fillings one day ahead, covering and refrigerating them. So here’s what I made: 

Egg Salad: I added the slightest bit of mustard to the mayonnaise I used to blend the hard-cooked, grated eggs. I also added a touch of fresh parsley, salt, and pepper.
Chopped Ham: I added the slightest bit of sweet relish to the mayo I blended into the ham. 
Chopped Chicken: With mayo as the binder, I added a whisper of flaked, toasted almonds. Dried, sweetened cranberries would have been another good choice.
Cucumber: Who doesn’t love Cucumber Sandwiches? 
Asparagus: Flatten trimmed slices of bread with a rolling pin, spreading lightly with seasoned mayonnaise. Place pre-cooked, well-dried asparagus spears onto bread, and roll up, securing with a toothpick.
Shrimp: Blend baby shrimp with seasoned mayo for a definite treat. I made just a few because of the high cost of shrimp. 
Cherry Cream Cheese: Blending room-temperature cream cheese with maraschino cherry juice and slivered cherries makes a beautiful bite for tea.

Lay each batch of sandwiches you make onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (easier to stack crosswise than plates). Just before serving, transfer a varied and elegant assortment to sandwich trays or platters. Be sure to cover your pre-made sandwiches with a damp, clean tea towel until you’re ready to do that. 

• Allow 2-1/2 pastries per-person. If you’re a masochist, a perfectionist, or a professional baker, make these pastries yourself - but I don’t. Pastry-making is an art. I prefer to buy them.

• Although I used fine china for this tea party, I threw everything into the dishwasher and recommend you do the same. How many times a year do you use this stuff? Exactly the point! Life is too short not to go easy on yourself. 

Cream Scones

Varieties of scones abound - several on this blog - but these are an especially lovely complement to afternoon tea. Because I neglected to take photos of the high tea I hosted, I snapped this solitary, leftover scone the day after my party.

Memories are made of this: Cream Scones!

Cream Scones:

1-3/4 c. (430 mL) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. (15 mL) baking powder
2 tbsp. (30 mL) granulated sugar
1/4 (1.2 mL) tsp. salt
2 tbsp. (30 mL) cold butter, cut into small chunks
2 large eggs, well beaten
1/4 c. (60 mL) heavy (whipping) cream

1/2 c. (125 mL) raspberry jam, for spooning onto scone

1/2 c. (125 mL) unsweetened whipped cream, for spooning onto scone 

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt, combining well. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside. 

Mix as coarse crumbs.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs into cream, blending thoroughly. Using a fork, gradually add cream mixture to flour mixture, cleaning tines often. Stir in balance of cream using fingers (Do not rinse out cream bowl). 

Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface, kneading just until flour is incorporated and dough forms a smooth, shiny ball. Roll into a circle about 3/4-in. thick. Cut dough into eight rounds using a drinking glass or 2-1/2 in. biscuit cutter. 

Roll out and cut.

Transfer scones to parchment-lined baking sheet, lightly dabbing tops with additional cream (or with remaining drops of egg and cream in bowl). Bake 12-to-14 min. or just until pale golden. Cool briefly on rack, serving warm. 

To serve, split scones open, spooning raspberry jam and a dollop of whipped cream onto each half. Yields eight 2-1/2-in. scones.

Note: Although I didn’t have time to make this, jamieoliver.com suggests a gluten-free recipe for Cream Scones. See: http://www.jamieoliver.com/news-and-features/features/simple-gluten-free-scones/

Cucumber Sandwiches

These are the perfect choice for afternoon tea! If you make just one party sandwich, let it be these!  

Cucumber Sandwiches:

1 part crisp parsley, chopped fine (see Note)
2 parts watercress, chopped fine
4 parts butter or margarine, softened
Bread slices as required, cut into 2-1/2-in. (6.5 cm) rounds

Seedless cucumbers, skin-on and thinly sliced, as required

Salt and pepper, as required

Thoroughly combine parsley, watercress, and butter or margarine. Spread this herbed butter over rounds of bread. Add a single cucumber slice, seasoning to taste. Top with second herb-buttered round of bread. Cover with dampened tea towel, refrigerating until needed. 

Note: Do not use flat-leaf (Italian) parsley or cilantro in these sandwiches.

Hazel Soon’s Flank Steak with Chinese Preserved Cucumbers

Shock and upset! Where had this recipe gone??? I looked everywhere; it wasn’t in my files. It had been so long since I’d made it that I’d completely forgotten how. All I remembered was that it was simple, enjoyable, and economical. 

This excellent dish is quick to prepare!

When I tried to find Hazel Soon (who some 40 years ago had taught me and an eager class of cooking students how to make this fantastic flank steak), I quickly learned that she and husband Jerry had moved from the neighborhood where I first met them. Luckily, a little old-fashioned sleuthing tracked them down. 

Hazel is now 80 and Jerry, 85, but each looks pretty much as they did the day we first met. The Soons are such great cooks that in 1974, the late actor Henry Fonda asked Hazel and Jerry to prepare a Chinese meal of their choosing for him, wife Shirlee, and his entourage. 

It all happened at the 1974 World’s Fair in Spokane, WA. Fonda was in Spokane doing his tour de force one-man show as underdog defence lawyer Clarence Darrow. In the day when Chinese cooking was considered “exotic,” the Soons offered cooking demos at the fair. Fonda happened by, one thing led to another, and he requested a private meal. 

With nothing fancy on which to serve it, the Soons laid an old door over two sawhorses, used their aprons as a tablecloth, and began to cook and serve.  

When I caught up with Hazel to get this recipe and one for Egg Fu Yung, Hazel recited both off the top of her head.

Although I’ve made this outstanding dish with Chinese preserved cucumbers in the past, they aren’t a grocery-store staple and are sometimes hard to find. So when I prepared this a few days ago, I very successfully substituted slivers of sweet, bottled ginger for the sweet preserved cucumbers. 

The quantities below are loose, allowing you to make as much or as little of this dish as you desire. With rice and a couple of vegetables on the side, you’ll have an interesting, unusual, and memorable dinner!  

Hazel Soon’s Flank Steak with Chinese Preserved Cucumbers:

Flank steak, frozen and partially thawed, as required
Canola oil, as required
Soy sauce, as required
Cornstarch, as required
Salt, as required (optional)
Chinese preserved cucumbers or preserved ginger in sugar syrup, as required
Green onions (“spring onions”; green part only), angle-sliced

To make this dish for Ron and me, I used a small chunk of partially frozen flank steak weighing approximately 6 oz. or 170 g (see Note). Angle-cut meat lengthwise into paper-thin slices approximately 2-1/2 in. (7.6 cm) wide. 

Working quickly, angle-slice partially frozen meat.

The perfect slice!

Heap thinly sliced meat onto a shallow plate; briefly set aside. Chinese marinades are normally measured in very small quantities. For this amount of meat, combine about 2 tsp. (10 mL) oil, 2 tsp.(10 mL) soy sauce, 1 tsp. (5 mL) cornstarch, and a dash of salt, mixed together well. Prepare just enough marinade to barely coat the meat, with no excess remaining. Marinade should resemble a medium-to-thin paste. Thoroughly combine marinade with flank steak. Spread meat strips evenly over plate and let rest 5 min. 

As meat rests, split each sweetened preserved cucumber (or sweetened preserved ginger) lengthwise in half, slicing thinly and scattering over beef. 

Dot with sweetened preserved cucumber or ginger.

Place a raised steaming rack in large lidded skillet or lidded wok, adding just enough water to reach bottom of rack. Over high heat, bring water to a boil. Slip plate onto rack. Cover skillet or wok, steaming meat about 5 min. If meat is heaped in more than one layer, rearrange with tongs until all meat is cooked through, cooking as quickly as possible to maintain tenderness. Garnish with slivered green onions, serving at once. Serves 2.

Tender, economical, and more than enough for two!

Note: You’ll be wasting your money if you use a more expensive cut of steak. Prepared this way, flank steak is wonderfully tender!

Hazel Soon’s Egg Fu Yung

My friend Hazel Soon is a remarkable woman and a gifted cook. I first met Hazel nearly 40 years ago, when she taught an eager class of  students (myself, among them) how to prepare and cook Chinese food - a skill that seemed exotic all those years ago, but is now mainstream. This is one of my favorite recipes from this busy, active woman. It’s quite simple the best Egg Fu Yung I have ever tasted. 

If you like this recipe, you must try this outstanding cook’s Flank Steak with Chinese Preserved Cucumbers! 

Hazel Soon’s Egg Fu Yung:

¼ c. (60 mL) peanut or canola oil, divided (see Note)
1 small onion, quartered lengthwise, sliced thinly, with each piece separated
1-to-2 stalks celery, angle-sliced thinly
About 2 c. (500 mL) fresh bean sprouts, rinsed and blotted dry
Chinese barbecued pork, slivered, or fresh, cooked shrimp or prawns (see Further Note)
4 eggs, well beaten 
1-½ tbsp. (22 mL) milk
Dash salt
1 green onion, angle-sliced, as garnish

To Prepare the Egg Fu Yung:

Assemble, measure, and get ingredients ready for Fu Yung and Sauce before starting. Heat empty wok on stove-top at high setting. Add 1 tbsp. oil, heating briefly just to smoking point. Add onions, stir-frying 30 sec.; celery, stir-frying 30 sec. (see Further Note); bean sprouts, stir-frying 30 sec.; and pork or shrimp, stir-frying just until heated through. Remove from wok; set aside.

Also on high stove setting, add remaining 3 tbsp. (45 mL) oil to wok, heating just to smoking point. 

Working quickly, beat together eggs, milk and salt in medium bowl; set aside. Add cooked ingredients, blending well. Ladle half egg mixture into hot wok. Flatten in oil to form a patty. When edges of mixture bubble and brown slightly, flip one side of patty over vegetable mixture; flip second side over. Cook 30-to-60 sec., just until mixture firms. Remove with slotted spoon. Set aside.

Note: If using peanut oil, store in a cool place or refrigerate. 

Further Note: I used six large, uncooked prawns to serve 2 diners. If using frozen prawns or shrimp, thaw under running cold water before peeling and cooking. Because the prawns were raw, I stir-fried them for 30 sec. immediately after stir-frying the celery. By the time I’d finished stir-frying the sprouts, the prawns were almost ready, completing their cooking with the egg mixture.

To Prepare the Sauce:

1/3 c. (80 mL) chicken broth, chilled or at room temperature 
3-to-4 drops soy sauce, for color
3/4 tsp. (3.7 mL) cornstarch or tapioca starch

Drain excess oil from wok. Wipe wok with paper towel but do not wash. In small bowl, gradually add combined broth and soy to starch, mixing well. Over medium heat, pour mixture into wok, stirring constantly 15-to-20 sec. Immediately pour over Egg Fu Yung. This mixture yields 2 patties (2 servings).

Angle-slice celery and onion.

Thaw prawns in ice water.

Use fresh sprouts - canned sprouts are greatly inferior. 

Stir-fry quickly.

Add cooked, cool vegetables to egg mixture. Combine well.

Ladle half egg mixture into sizzling wok.

Garnish and serve immediately.

Seared Asparagus with Onions and Peppers

Yesterday’s blog saw me saving a little bacon fat. This excellent and très easy recipe needs it! The fat sears the vegetables quickly, imparting a slight flavor of bacon. The quantities below are loose - adjust them as needed. This version serves 2.

Seared Asparagus with Onions and Peppers:

2 tbsp. bacon fat, strained 

Every morsel ... Delicious!

8-to-10 asparagus spears, trimmed
1 small onion, cut into 1/2-in. dice
1/4 yellow bell pepper (“capsicum”), cut into 1/2-in. dice

To large skillet, add bacon fat over medium-high heat until melted and sizzling. Pan should be large enough that fat barely skims the bottom. Add asparagus, onion, and bell pepper, turning asparagus frequently with tongs and stir-frying vegetables until each starts to brown. 
Cover 1-to-2 min. or just until tender-crisp. Serve at once. Asparagus will retain its bright green color and will appear slightly glazed.

Start with this ...

A couple of minutes later, end with this!

Nugget Potatoes with Bacon and Olives

Wash and dry some nugget potatoes. Toss with bacon and olives. Serves 2. So there you have today’s recipe, everyone! Enjoy the rest of your day! I’m outta here!   

Wha -??? You want more? This is one of those rare recipe titles that says everything you need to know!  So much for my “easy day...!”  (Grumble, grumble ...)

Nugget Potatoes with

Bacon and Olives:

10 nugget potatoes, rinsed and halved

2 tbsp. (30 mL) butter or margarine

6-to-8 strips side bacon, diced raw

8 kalamata olives, drained, pitted and quartered

In a medium saucepan, cook potatoes in unsalted boiling water 10-to-12 min., until a sharp knife easily penetrates the flesh. Drain potatoes; briefly set aside. Swirl butter or margarine in still-hot saucepan until melted. Return potatoes to saucepan, gently tossing with butter until coated. Cover saucepan until ready to add prepared bacon and olives. 

As potatoes cook, sauté diced bacon in medium skillet. Remove bacon from skillet, blotting dry on paper towel. Strain and reserve bacon fat for future use (see Note). Combine cooked bacon with prepared kalamata olives. Add to potatoes, gently tossing to combine. Serve at once. Yields 2 servings.

Note: Although I don’t usually cook with bacon fat, tomorrow’s equally easy recipe for Seared Asparagus with Onions and Peppers wouldn’t taste as scrumptious as it does without the fat I saved today. I hope you’ll try not only today’s recipe, but tomorrow’s, too. Each is excellent.

Sauté bacon.

Pit olives. Every morsel ... Delicious!