I didn't watch Rick Stein's Fast Eastern Odessey. To be honest I'd got a bit fed up with him.
However, I got the cookbook for Christmas - and it is superb. I shall be cooking a lot from it - basically because it's not the 'usual suspects' - as I shall demonstrate....
This one caught my eye as I was reading through - and when we had a diner party with some new frfiends I thought why not...
I'd already bought some Candle nuts - so it was good to be able to use them as part of the paste
Now the duck needed to be lightly smoked. The recipe suggested smoking in a wok - and I had some woodchips..........
Hmm....That's a lot of smoke...
OK - so after about 10 minutes I needed to take the duck outside !
It turns out that wok based duck smoking should only be tried if you live in a Chinese country house (i.e. no windows and lots of drafts)! My house still stinks (not in best books)...
looks damn good though !
And now for the next strange step. Duck, paste and water in a roasting bag. This needed a trip to Asda - who ever uses a roasting bag, and why ?
After about 4 hours slow and low
And the result...
Not that impressed. It was a real mess to serve. The slow and low worked very well - but meant there was not chance of 'carving' the meat off - the duck simply fell apart. OK - but somehow not so cool for the diner party - lots of little bones etc etc. I think I may have also over smoked the duck - it was quite a powerful flavor, and the rest of the Balinese paste didn't shine through. Oh well. You win some - you lose some.
Also did a coconut salad
And some sweet shiitake mushrooms
However, I got the cookbook for Christmas - and it is superb. I shall be cooking a lot from it - basically because it's not the 'usual suspects' - as I shall demonstrate....
This one caught my eye as I was reading through - and when we had a diner party with some new frfiends I thought why not...
I'd already bought some Candle nuts - so it was good to be able to use them as part of the paste
Now the duck needed to be lightly smoked. The recipe suggested smoking in a wok - and I had some woodchips..........
Hmm....That's a lot of smoke...
OK - so after about 10 minutes I needed to take the duck outside !
It turns out that wok based duck smoking should only be tried if you live in a Chinese country house (i.e. no windows and lots of drafts)! My house still stinks (not in best books)...
looks damn good though !
And now for the next strange step. Duck, paste and water in a roasting bag. This needed a trip to Asda - who ever uses a roasting bag, and why ?
After about 4 hours slow and low
And the result...
Not that impressed. It was a real mess to serve. The slow and low worked very well - but meant there was not chance of 'carving' the meat off - the duck simply fell apart. OK - but somehow not so cool for the diner party - lots of little bones etc etc. I think I may have also over smoked the duck - it was quite a powerful flavor, and the rest of the Balinese paste didn't shine through. Oh well. You win some - you lose some.
Also did a coconut salad
And some sweet shiitake mushrooms
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