Celebrate the duck-shooting season with this quacker recipe.
Duck crepes with cucumber, toasted peanuts and herb pancake
BY JOHN CORBETT. Call us old-fashioned at Alimentary but we love the duck-shooting season. We’re not so keen, mind you, on standing ankle-deep in freezing swamp water in a maimai (hut) at dawn, but for us the first Saturday in May, when the three-month duck-shooting season opens, signals the real beginning of winter and the pleasures of cold-weather fare.
We like duck right through the year though, from roasts and confits during the cooler months to salads in summer. With the meat now a fixture on restaurant menus and excellent speciality offerings available such as those from Saveur and quack ‘a’ duck, you can also readily indulge your liking at home.
Saveur duck legs – Mmmmm!
Despite its deliciousness, duck can be a bit of a proposition. Like a lot of game meats it is rich and we have always found that a little goes a long way. We were delighted then when our Australian friend, Executive Chef Darren Hilditch, served us this recipe for duck crêpes at the Hard Rock Hotel in Penang. Made with cucumber, toasted peanuts and herb pancake, it provides just the right portion size, is equally good hot or cold and is perfect for enjoying year-round.
Roast Duck Crêpes
Makes 6 entrée-sized serves.
Ingredients
1 small roast duck
6 herb pancakes (available from supermarkets and Asian food stores)
240g cucumber, julienned
3 oranges, filleted
60ml hoisin sauce
Small handful of mint
Small handful of fresh coriander
Method
Remove the breast from the duck and pull the meat from the legs.
Shred the leg meat and mix with a little of the hoisin sauce.
Lay out one of the herb crêpes and place 80g of the julienned cucumber along the bottom.
Lay on 80g of the leg mixture.
Roll into a cylinder and cut into four pieces.
Using a teaspoon, spread 30g of hoisin sauce along the base of a main course plate.
Lay the crêpes, evenly spaced, on the plate.
Slice each duck breast into 12 slices and lay three pieces onto each crêpe piece.
Place an orange fillet on top, garnish with picked mint and coriander, and serve.
Wine suggestion: Pinot Noir.
Alimentary recommends Duck Hunter Marlborough Pinot Noir
Photos: John Corbett; www.duckhunter.co.nz
John Corbett travelled to Penang with the assistance of Lexlee Media Group and the Hard Rock Hotel Penang.