Duck Puffs

MUNCH RATING: 3/5 

 

This is Ching-He Huang’s recipe, but I have adapted it slightly to suit the ingredients I had.

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

Ching’s original recipe says it makes 10 Duck Puffs, but you will have lots of filling leftover, which is fine as I used it in some stir-fried some noodles (the duck tastes like Aromatic Crispy Duck so would be nice in wraps with cucumber and spring onion).

 

I have also changed the way the pastry is rolled out, as Ching’s way results in a lot of wasted pastry, so if you do it my way then you should get 16 Puffs out of 1 block of pastry.

 

They were quite time consuming to make, but I think they would be good for a dinner party as they can be prepared in advance and then popped into the oven for the last stage. I served them with cucumber and carrot matchsticks.

 

TASTE TEST:

The duck filling is gorgeous, but the puff pastry makes them a bit dry in the mouth. I would prefer to just serve the filling in wraps.

 

• Prep: 30 mins plus 20 mins marinating time
• Cook: min 1 hr 50 mins
• Can be frozen before baking

 

Ingredients:

• ½ finger-length piece fresh root ginger, grated
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons plum sauce (I used Hoi-sin sauce instead)
• 1 tablespoon groundnut/vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons clear honey
• 1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice (this is my addition)
• 2 duck legs, skin on (make a few cuts into the skin & flesh)
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced (I didn’t have any!)
• 1 340g block ready-rolled puff pastry (I used Jus Rol)
• a little flour, for dusting
• 1 egg, beaten

 

Directions:

1. Marinate the duck: Mix the ginger with the soy and plum sauce (or hoi-sin), oil and honey (and Chinese 5 spice) in a deep dish, then add the duck legs, turning to coat. Cover and chill for at least 20 mins.
2. Cook the duck: Heat oven to Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C. Lift the duck legs onto a non-stick baking tray, then roast for 1½ hours until crisp and golden. Meanwhile, tip the remaining marinade into a small saucepan and simmer for 2 mins, then cool. When the duck is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and finely shred the meat. Mix with the cooled marinade and spring onions.
3. Prepare your pastry: Take your block of pastry and cut it into 16 even pieces. Dust your board and rolling pin with a little bit of flour and then roll each piece of pastry into a square.

YOU CAN MAKE TWO DIFFERENT SHAPES FOR YOUR PUFFS:

• Triangles: put 2 tsp of the duck filling in the middle of each square, brush the edges of pastry with a little egg, then fold the pastry squares in half, pressing to seal so you have a triangle shape.
• Half-moon: using a 9-10cm round cutter stamp out a circle from each pastry square. Put 2 tsp of the duck filling in the middle of each circle, brush the edges of pastry with a little egg, then fold the pastry circles in half, pressing to seal so you have a half-moon shape

To cook:

Transfer the puffs to a lightly greased baking sheet and brush with more egg. Bake at Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C for 15-20 mins until golden (I turned up the oven to Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C for the last few minutes to make them golden brown).

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• If you need to re-roll your puff pastry, stack the trimmings on top of each other to keep the layers.
• Freezing: Can be frozen for up to 1 month. Cook for 5 mins longer from frozen.

 

You might also be interested in: Hoi-sin Pork

Hoi-sin Pork

The marinade for the pork is based on a dish by Ching He-Huang that Steve cooked for me for Valentine's Day. Her recipe uses duck breast but I thought it would go well with pork as hoisin is the main ingredient for char-siu (chinese roast pork).

I had some leftover jasmine rice which I told Steve I was going to serve with the pork. However, I wanted to try something new with the rice so I did a twist on the italian arancini risotto balls. Steve was pleasantly surprised when he cut open the rice balls to find them filled with cheese and he really liked them, however I don't think they were 100% success so I will tweak them and then put up the recipe.

For now here's the Hoi-sin Pork recipe:

To serve 2

Ingredients:
1 large boneless pork chop (or 2 smaller ones)
Marinade:
3 tbsp hoi-sin sauce
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp (dark) soy sauce
1 tbsp oil (preferably sesame for the flavour)
Ching's recipe calls for ½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder but I didn't have any, however the pork still has lots of flavour.

Directions:

1. Put the pork in a plastic zip-lock freezer bag and then add all the marinade ingredients. Seal the bag and massage the meat so that it is fully and evenly coated. Pop it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes but preferably for a few hours.
2. Take the meat out of fridge about 30 minutes before you're ready to cook to bring it to room temperature.
3. Heat a large frying/saute pan to medium-high and then put the pork into the pan, reserving the rest of the marinade (if you have a non-stick pan you won't need to add any oil).
4. Fry the pork for a few minutes on each side until it is fully cooked and no longer pink in the middle. The cooking time will depend on thickness of your meat but you can generally tell when it is done when you press on the meat and it feels firm.
5. Remove the pork from the pan, keep warm and allow to rest for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the rest of the marinade to the pan and simmer gently for a few minutes until heated through and slightly thickened.
7. Slice the pork and drizzle the sauce on top.