Oriental style duck pancakes

As I've mentioned before growing up in Hong Kong really gave me a passion for Chinese food, both cooking and eating it. As a pub chef I often used to put on themed nights and Oriental night was always very popular both with the customers and my brigade of chefs in the kitchen.
These duck leg pancakes are a version of the great Peking Duck, you can opt to use a whole duck (if your feeding a few people!) or duck legs as I've done here. Another option is to buy the Oriental pancakes but if you prefer to give making them a go it's really simple.

Ingredients (serves 2 people)
2 large duck legs
180g Goose fat
2 tbsp honey dissolved in warm water
Sweet chilli sauce
Hoi sin sauce
1/2 cucumber sliced finely
8 spring onions sliced finely
For the pancakes:
225g plain flour
155ml boiling water
1 tsp vegetable oil
Roasted sesame oil

Method
Place the duck legs on a wire rack over a plate or baking dish and pour boiling water over them to tighten the skin. While the duck legs are still warm brush them with the honey and water solution and leave to stand in a cool and airy place for at least 6 hours or over night in a fridge.
Heat some oil in a frying pan and seal the duck legs. Place them in a roasting tray skin side down with the goose fat, cover with foil and roast in an oven at 150C after an hour turn the legs over, cover with foil and roast for another hour.
As this is going on it's time to prepare the pancakes. Sift the flour into a bowl, slowly pour in the boiling water, then add the vegetable oil and knead into a firm dough. over with a damp tea towel and set aside for 30 mins. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 mins or until it becomes smooth. Divide the dough into equal sized balls, the picture below will give you a rough idea of how big.

Dough balls ready

Press the dough balls with the palm of your hand into a flat disc. Brush one disc with a little sesame oil and put another disc on top. Using a rolling pin flatten each pair of discs into a 15cm pancake. Heat an ungreased  wok or frying pan over a high heat, then reduce the heat to low and put the pairs of pancakes (one at a time) into the pan. When brown spots start to appear flip them over and cook the other side.

Pancakes cooking

When the second side is cooked lift the pancakes out and carefully peel them apart (they will be HOT!). Fold each pancake in half with the cooked side facing inwards and set aside under a damp cloth. 

Just before serving steam the pancakes for about 10 mins. When the duck legs are cooked heat the oven up to 220C take off the foil and cook for a further 5 mins to crisp up the skin. Take them out of the oven and place them on a wire rack.

Crispy duck legs!

When the legs have had a minute or two to cool a bit shred them with a fork, serve with the pancakes, spring onion, cucumber, sweet chilli and Hoi sin sauce and enjoy! Man man chi!

Fishing for trout with my eldest son

We recently went on our first family camping trip to the sea side. My eldest son was desperate for a fishing rod so I gave in and got him a kids fishing rod. It was a bit rubbish and whilst down on the local pier we didn't catch a thing, no surprises there. So when we got home I promised him we'd do some 'proper' fishing. So a couple of afternoons ago we went to our local trout fishery, there were people there with their professional equipment, silly hats and camouflaged jackets. James and I turned up with his little fishing rod, a few hooks and a loaf of bread, we got a few looks but we were about to have the last laugh. First cast and boom! Line snapped! 15 minutes later and we had 2 rather large trout in our cool box! We didn't see anyone else catch anything and got back into the car feeling a bit proud of ourselves.

Trout!

When we got home I asked 'James shall we have fish for dinner?' 'The fish we caught? No way!'  Fair enough, so it was up to me and my wife to eat the freshest fish we've ever had in our house. I wanted a dish that would reflect the freshness of the fish and decided on Trout ceviche Oriental style. Here's the recipe:

Serves 2

2 fillets of trout (pin boned)

Juice of 2 limes

Splash of balsamic vinegar

Splash of olive oil

1/2 chilli

1 garlic glove

1/2 a bunch of coriander

Seasoning

A few lettuce leaves

8 cherry tomatoes

Blitz all of the ingredients in a food processor (except the fish, lettuce and tomatoes). Slice the trout into strips, cover the fish with the processed ingredients and leave for 20 minutes. Arrange some of the lettuce and tomatoes on a plate top with the fish and serve! Enjoy!