Alright, so I still need to write about the slow-cooked lamb and lobster ravioli we had the other weekend, and I will on the next post, but I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the rockin duck we had last night!!  


The recipe was Chinese, it was a Five Spice Roasted Duck-  And check this out, it takes two days to prep!!  Which I will admit was part of the reason I wanted to try it; by the end it’s been marinated, blanched, basted, refrigerated uncovered and then roasted. 


We also had pot stickers, and I discovered that I am so bad at pleating them it’s actually funny.  I did however receive pleating lessons, which bumped me up from the humorously bad category to cursing whoever the hell invented this shit.  Stupid pleats.  And since I’m a tard I forgot to take a picture of my pre-school pleating and my teacher’s expert examples, so the pics on here are from over the weekend (but I thought the way the camera picked them up made them look relatively professional-like, at least in my own mind 😉  


But back to my quack quack.  After two days of prep work we decided to do it on the rotisserie, which deviated slightly from what the recipe recommended, but frankly everything is better rotisseried… especially a recipe where the sizzling flavorful skin is one of the stars.  It’s meat with a stick shoved through it that spins, men have done this for centuries, what could go wrong?  


And here is the part we all love where the figure skater slams face-first into the ice at the end of a triple sow cow- the rotisserie stopped working halfway though cooking.  I seriously shit you not, I almost had a damn heart attack. 


So here I am, with a duck I’ve been working on the whole week on the brink of disaster and five guys downstairs playing poker *sigh*      I threw it in the oven trying to figure out how to save the skin crispiness and roast the underside at the same time, which is more challenging than it sounds, for the remainder of what I thought was the rest of the cooking time.  


Oh yeah we’re not done.  Took it out, it looked beautiful and smelled amazing.  Let it rest, delicately moved it to the cutting board… and savoring the moment slowly sliced into the leg, feeling the delectable crunch of perfectly cooked duck skin give way under the steel of my knife.  


And the thigh was raw in the center.  Fucking kangaroos.  I wanted to throw the whole damn thing against the wall.  SO!  Deep breath and a pouring of wine later I flipped the oven to the convection setting, tented my beautiful skin with foil and embarked on the third cooking attempt.  Roasting, re-resting, and a mediocre offering of shrimp chips in the form of a veiled apology for the wait later, I slice again.  


And it was lovely, the most lovely part being it was cooked.   Hahahaha and oh by the way, I’ve never carved a bird before…  something I didn’t necessarily think of until the knife was in my hand.  But there are those who would say that’s what You Tube is for, and no kidding, they’re right.  


I gotta tell ya, it was totally worth it.  The marinade with the five spice and ginger was permeating, more so than I thought it would be.  Being a ginger freak I tend to double or triple the amount I put into pretty much any recipe that calls for it, which can sometimes lead me astray but in this case enhanced the flavor quite a bit.  


I’ll post the recipe on the other site- and please don’t let the two day prep time be a deterrence.  The process from start to finish was quite fascinating, especially the uncovered refrigeration to dry the skin out.  From what I was reading this is a common centerpiece for Chinese New Years and other holidays, and I can certainly see why.  


By the way if anyone feels like randomly bestowing a present upon me I am in need of an instant-read wireless digital thermometer.  Of course, had I had one my evening wouldn’t have been nearly as amusing.  There’s life for you 😉