Roast duck with oriental spices

A lot of people are scared to cook duck at home. They're worried that it'll dry out. And sure, that can happen--but only if you don't cook it properly. Poultry stores sell duck breasts which can be pan fried, grilled or barbecued, but really, they're expensive and the flavour you get from grilling or frying is nowhere near as good as what can be experienced when you properly roast the whole beast.

Now, a word on serving. Two adults can work their way through a 1.2 kilogram chicken, no problem. A duck, though? You'd be struggling. The smallest ducks I've ever seen for sale, the ones I buy, they weigh about two kilograms. Don't worry, though. Cold duck meat is wonderful in a sandwich the next day. You could use it in a warm salad, too, as Bill Granger mentioned he does in the article that inspired this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 kilogram duck
1/4 cup honey
2 tbs coriander seeds
2 tbs Sichuan peppercorns
1 tbs light soy sauce
2 tsp whole cloves, plus four or five individual cloves for later
2 tsp whole fennel seeds
5 star anise pods
4 dried chillies
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 cinnamon sticks
1 shallot
sea salt

Use a cleaver or the back part of the blade of your chef's knife to remove the duck's wing tips, Pope's nose (the arse) and neck (if still attached). Wash the duck thoroughly inside and out with running water before patting it dry with paper towel. Using a skewer, carefully prick the bird all over. Don't go all the way through the flesh, though.

In a mortar and pestle or electric spice grinder, grind the coriander seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, fennel seeds, three of the star anise pods and one of the cinnamon sticks. When ground, combine with a generous pinch of sea salt and rub all over the bird. Get the spices into all the nooks and crannies, including the cavity. Stuff the cavity with two of the dried chillies and remaining cinnamon sticks and star anise pods. Place the duck in a bowl and refrigerate for a while. Me, I marinated it for two days.

A hour before cooking, remove the duck from the refrigerator. Take the shallot and peel it, before jamming the four or five extra cloves into the surface. Stuff the shallot, along with the crushed garlic cloves, into the duck's cavity before trussing the bird by binding the tips of the drumsticks together. Simple, but effective. Rest the remaining two dried chillies between the wing and the breast.

Fifteen to twenty minutes before cooking, pre-heat the oven to 120*C. Place the duck over rack in a roasting pan breast-up and roast at this temperature for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Remove from the oven. Crank the oven up to 200*C. After five minutes, return the duck to the oven. Meanwhile, combine the light soy sauce and honey. After fifteen minutes of cooking, remove the duck from the oven again. Brush the honey/soy sauce mixture all over the duck, before returning the duck to the oven for another fifteen minutes of cooking. At this point, poke the thickest part of the thigh with a skewer to test doneness. If the juices run clear, your duck is cooked. If they're pink, return the duck to the oven for another five minutes. Remember that it's okay to serve duck a little rare.

Rest the duck a good ten minutes before carving.

Tips and ideas:

There's no good reason to not experiment with this dish. I reckon a small lump of ginger would go nicely in the cavity during the cooking process and that, too, some sort of citrus fruit--lemon, lime, maybe even kaffir lime--could add a lot to the flavour.