My Official Entry into the "Sweet and Spicy" TD
Please accept my official entry into the "Sweet and Spicy" TD named "Smoked Duck, Leg of Lamb and Mashed Sweet Potato".
Just happened to find a leg of lamb on special at the grocery store so added it as a side. :biggrin1:
Picked up a traditionally raised Peking duck from the farmer's market that didn't make it into the smoker for Toast's "Something Fowl Comes This Way" TD. It occurred to me when this TD was called that I could do something with it now. And I wanted to eat that duck, too. I left looking up recipes online to the wee hours in the night before and found out that Peking duck needs to sit drying in the fridge for 3 days. Fark. The cook day I set aside got swallowed by other stuff so the new cook time got slotted to very early the next morning which ended up giving the duck about 30 or so hours drying out in the fridge. Score!
I really liked that we had everything needed for the cook already in the house. The duck was spiced with coarsely ground black, red and white peppercorns, Chinese 5-spice and coarse sea salt. The sauce was supposed to be honey, soy sauce, orange juice and water. Instead I made the sauce out of some bitter orange marmalade we made from a MaMade kit, the juice of one orange, the zest of one orange, sea salt and water. I consciously substituted the marmalade for the honey but totally forgot about the soy sauce/tamari until I saw it in my photo right now. Hmmmm. Glad I did what I did, it turned out stellar.
The thing about Peking duck is that the skin should be really, really bite through crispy. I was introduced to the idea of drying a bird out in the fridge (I think it was CD but not sure) to get crispy skin but didn't remember the whole 'sacred' tradition of Peking duck I saw on TV. One webpage said the Chinese separate the skin from the meat by blowing air through a straw. That poster also said he accomplished the separation well just by pulling them apart. I chose to pull it and use a knife for tougher spots. I was pressed for time so separated about 80 % of the skin from the bird and skipped the tedious work of doing that around the spine. I rubbed the meat with the salt/pepper/5-spice mixture under the skin then let it sit in the fridge again overnight. Most of the liquid came out in the first 24 hours. Before cooking you need to either dunk the bird in boiling water or pour boiling water over it. As far as I was concerned I was not dunking the bird in boiling water even if the poster I read said it didn't absorb the water. He did it both ways and weighed the results. I closed neck flap to keep boiling water out of the inside of the bird and wow, it really did tighten that pulled-off slack skin like a glove. Huh.
The lamb was rubbed with ginger, garlic, dry rosemary, cayenne, cumin, onion powder and coarse sea salt.
Since the duck was sleeping overnight in the fridge naked I thought the lamb should join it. Never know, might kick it's game up a notch.
Didn't remember to take a picture when Dragona was crowded with a lamb leg, an erect duck, two sweet potatoes and a dish of duck gizzards for our pup but did remember to take a shot when the lamb was left with one sweet potato. I basted the duck with the sweet orange sauce a few times. What a beautiful beast.
I have to say that duck turned out amazing. Our kitchen is at one extreme end of the house. Didn't matter what room I was coming from and going to, after it had rested a bit every time I was on the move somehow it involved going through the kitchen, breaking off another piece of crispy skin and crunching it. Fark. Dipped in that amazing orangey sticky sweet sauce. Double fark. I am definitely doing this again. Crunch.
I had to go out so my partner pulled off the leg of lamb while I was out. When I returned I reheated slices of duck and lamb in the oven and I sauteed a couple of red onions in butter and added mashed sweet potato and sea salt. Great accompaniment, would do that again, too. The lamb was really delicious. I spent so much time on the duck I gave the lamb little more that a good rub and a good smoke and it turned out fantastic, too. It had a beautiful, deep smoke ring that my camera didn't convey.
Toast -- please note the homage to your missed TD embroidered on the tea towel.
Below is the duck lavished with orange sauce. Sweet and spicy.
Below is the lamb.
And the full meal. Please use the photo below as my voting photo.
Thanks for watching!!
ray:
