If you a fan of duck, I will make your day today as I am gonna feature our ALL TIME FAVOURITE – Five Spice & Orange Duck. Never does this dish fail to satisfy our hunger.
Often, over complicate a dish is a big no-no. Simple and good quality of the main ingredient itself is the centre of attention. Like five spice and orange duck, I use very simple marinate but I make sure that I spend a little more for 2 good pieces of duck breasts. I usually like to marinate meats a few hours before cooking or even overnight sometimes! This allows the marinate to work its magic in making a wonderful and impeccable dish.
In a typical Chinese family in Malaysia, duck is only served during special occasion. It’s not a dish that my mom makes on a frequent manner like chicken. I guess that’s why duck seems to be a very special dish when it’s served. In Chinese cooking, Roast duck, Peking duck and Crispy duck are the famous ones that no one will miss when visiting a Chinese restaurant.
So, why did I choose to choose five spice and orange as a pair? I think five spice brings out the real flavours of meats. Wikipedia: Five Spice (??) incorporates the five basic flavors of Chinese cooking — sweet, sour, bitter,savory, and salty. What are the five spices? Fennel, cloves, Szechuan peppercorns, star anise, and cinnamon.
As for orange, I borrow the idea of French dish canard à l’orange. As you may say, five spice and orange duck is a dish of East & West combination. Let’s bring five spice and orange duck to your kitchen, shall we?
Serves 2
Ingredients:
Good quality duck breasts, 2
Cinnamon stick, 1
Star anise, 2
Ginger (sliced), 2cm
Garlic cloves (slightly crushed and leave the skins on), 4 -5
Spring onion (cut into about 4-5cm), 2 stalks
Orange zests, some
Orange juice, 3 – 4 tbsp
Dark soya sauce, 4 tbsp
Soya sauce, 5 tbsp
Sugar, 1.5 tsp
White pepper, 1 tsp
Chinese rice wine, 2 tbsp
Five-Spice powder, 2 tsp
Method:
1. Wash and use kitchen towel to pad dry the duck breasts.
2. Place the duck breasts in a big bowl and put in all the above mentioned ingredients and seasonings.
3. Mix all the ingredients well.
4. Cover the bowl with cling film and put into the fridge to marinate for a few hours.
5. Once the duck breasts have been marinated for a few hours, heat a pan and make sure it’s hot enough to sear the duck breasts.
6. Always skin side down.
7. Meanwhile, turn on the oven at 180 celcius – 200 celcius.
8. Cook the skin side for about 8-10 minutes. Then turn the other side and cook for about 5-10.
9. Once both side are seared, put the duck breasts into the pre-heated oven and cook for about 25 minutes depending if you’d like to have the meats slightly medium cooked. If you prefer them to be cooked well done, leave in the oven slightly longer.
10. Check the duck breasts from time to time and and brush the marinate on each side to keep them moist and to have nice golden brown colour.
11. Once the breasts are cooked, slice the breasts thinly and serve on the plate with its juice.
Enjoy cooking & Bon appetit! Tell me what do you think after you have tired this!
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November 9th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Looks good. I’m curious: how do you come up with these recipes? Are you experimenting a lot or is it mostly stuff you got from your mother/grandmother /cookbooks. Enjoy the weekend; it sounds like Arnaud will be busy playing with his new toy…
November 9th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
[Xavier] Merci pour votre commentaire. I like to create my own recipes. Sometimes, I like to change what I learnt from my mom. I do use my cookbooks for reference and inspiration but never like to follow exactly what it says
For this dish, I tried to create a mix flavour of East and West. So, I use Chinese ingredients and ’steal’ the idea of canard a l’orange, that’s why I added slices of orange and orange juice. It turned out to be yummy.
You enjoy your weekend too! And you are right, Arnaud is busy playing with his new toy
November 10th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Awww, that duck looks so good. Very creative of ya. Thxs for dropping by the blog.
November 10th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Congrats on new blog! The duck looks beautiful – I love the photo in the skillet.
November 10th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
YUM, YUM, YUM!!! i wanna know when you are going to be making me some of that
November 10th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
[boo_licious] Thank you for your comment and dropping by!
[Steamy Kitchen] Cheers! I love duck and this is one of my fav recipes!
[Kristin] Thanks for dropping by! Are you hungry yet? Anytime, Kris!
November 11th, 2007 at 5:02 am
oh la la…j’adore le canard à l’orange! c’est parfait pour la saison d’hiver. Alors, bravo pour les belles photos!
A
November 11th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I am not a big fan of duck (or any kind of red or dark meat), except Peking duck (for the skin), but your duck is super-duper delicious looking and gorgeous. Totally restaurant quality, and yes, congrats on the new site. Gotta change my blogroll.
November 11th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I absoloutley LOVE duck! It is so tasty but like you said about your mum I only cook it once in a while also. I love your recipe here it sounds delicious, it is very well written by the way…..easy to understand. I love all the pictures.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Superb pictures, felicitations ! and i can confirm it was as yummy as it looks good !
I want more !!
November 12th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
[holybasil] Merci pour votre commentaire. Le canard c’est l’un de mes plats préféré!
[Rasa Malaysia] Thank you for your comment. I love both Peking & Crispy duck too!
[jeena] Thank you very much for your comment again. Give this recipe a try and I am sure you will love it!
[Arnaud] Merci pour ton commentaire et la confirmation que le canard etait delicieux!! La prochaine fois je vais faire une autre recette!
October 31st, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I would love to get this a try. It looks so delicious and not time consuming like the peking duck. Does your duck breasts have skin on? What kind of oil do you prefer to sear the duck, margerine, butter, olive or cooking oil like vegetable, canola, corn, etc.? Or sear in a non-stick pan with no oil? I have a whole frozen duck at home and probably will take some work to de
bone.
October 31st, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Hi Wendy,
Thanks for dropping by! I usually leave the skin on but cut it off when it's cooked.
As duck skin is very fatty, I usually don't put any oil but just sear in a non-stick pan.
Good luck with your cooking and let me know what you think!
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 am
Bought a frozen duck (at least I thought I did) in a tight sealed plastic wrap in May this year. It stated "Missing Part". I did not think much of it, thinking maybe the gibblets are gone. To my surprise, one leg was missing. It took me a while to cut out the leg, wings and the breast meat. I run out of time and quickly seasoned it with the ingredients except ginger, cinnamon sticks or star anise. In restrospect, I think it will taste better with them. I left them in a big bowl covered with plastic for a few hours and left home. I never seared any meat and it turned out very good. The leg took longer to cook. Over all, I like the way it turned out. Thanks, Leemei. Good duck breast is hard to find.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Wendy,
Just out of curiosity where you live at the moment? Is it really difficult to find just duck breasts?
I am glad you love this recipe!!