Hubby wants to try this recipe from Death By Burrito. I can't get the photo to upload but thankfully Google copies text from photos...
Makes 6 Tacos
1kg lard
2 clementines
1 garlic bulb, cut in half
25g fresh thyme
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
4 duck taranto
1 cos lettuce, shredded
6 small Corn Tortillas
100g Pico de Gallo
1 ripe mango, peeled, stoned and cut into thin strips
Preheat the oven to 120-C/250°F
Put the lard into a large saucepan and melt over a medium heat.
Using a vegetable peeler, remove all the peel from the clementines in strips add these to the lard along with the garlic, thyme, bay leaves and salt. Reduce the heat to low and cook for about 30 minutes to let all the flavours infuse.
Slash the skin of each duck breast 3-4 times. Place the duck in a deep roasting dish, pour over the infused lard, and cook in the oven for 1 hour,
Remove the dish from the oven and leave the duck to rest in the fat for 1 hour, then remove the duck from the fat. Heat a large dry frying pan and place the duck, skin side down, to sear and crisp the skin, then remove from the pan and slice thinly.
Segment the clementines, and put the slices into a bowl, then toss with the shredded lettuce. Warm the tortillas in a dry frying pan for 20 seconds on each side, then arrange a layer of lettuce and clementine slices on the tortillas and top with the duck slices, Pico de Gallo and mango strips.
I am not sure about cooking in 1kg of lard, but it seems pretty central to getting the flavour. I don't know how to track it - the weight of it to begin with less how much is left when the duck comes out?
Any suggestions for alternative, healthier ways to cook the duck? We have an air fryer, but I'm not sure how I'd get the flavour in.
Replies
https://omnivorescookbook.com/crispy-chinese-duck-breast/
but now make several modifications.
I don't bother to marinate the duck breasts but do dry brine, which means salting the normal amount a few hours in advance or overnight. I like to score skin in one direction against the grain of the meat, which later serve as guidelines for cutting. I start skin side down in a cold pan heated up slowly to low heat, then turn up to medium to render off as much fat as possible. Press down on the duck breasts with a wooden spoon to help flatten to skin for maximum contact. You can also use the weight of a second frying pan but I find this conducts too much heat to the non skin side, which is fine if you don't mind your duck well done. Once the skin is well browned I flip over and check with the meat thermometer. My own preference is medium rare, which is about 57C. If you want rare use 52C and well done is 72C.
Don't bother making the pancakes yourself. You can buy them from the deep freeze section of the asian supermarket or just use soft taco shells. I serve with hoisin sauce, thinly sliced cucumber and either chive or thinly sliced scallions.
Pictured here with Vietnamese watercress soup for extra greens.
If you have access to a sous-vide setup, I've seen a recipe for sous-vide confit that calls for far less fat - the vacuum basically allows you to confit the duck in the fat that's already on/in it.