Hung Duck and the Portuguese Tart Part 2

Ok ... after P had a moment of personal crisis at seeing a dead duck in its entirety, I set about preparing the marinade for the duck which I massaged into the bird in preparation of its hanging:

what made P leave the room

5 spice powder, thick soy and ginger

donald well and trully relaxed

M and P channelled their collective inner boy scout and rigged up a way of hanging the duck from the exhaust:

Donald had to hang for 2 hours so M started on the pastry for the portuguese tarts which also had a 2 hour rest time.

M then turned to shredding the well soaked piece of bacalao:

P got to work on his arrancini balls:

So far so straightforward, after a few more swigs and nibbles, it was time to start on the duck proper. But first the tarts. I helped P with the custard filling as M teased out the pastry in the tray:

For the duck, I started a caramel in the braising pan. Mild moment of panic as the sugar started to separate and extrude its hot sticky liquid which quickly turned a candy brown ... at this point we dunked the duck into the pan and seared it on both sides in the liquid caramel ... then the rest of the braising liquid went in ... lid on ... slow fire for the another hour or so:

caramel

seared duck

the braising liquid - yes those are garlic cloves

braising

With the duck braising away, we boiled potatoes, steamed asparagus and fried mushrooms:

Everything pretty much came together at the same time ... (another indication of our waning interest??) ...

Arrancini Balls, Bacalao Croquettes and that salad leaf I can't remember the name of - "Entrees"

Our "Main" plated

The duck was pretty damn fantastic! And various sides in their simplicity was the perfect foil for the sweet rich taste of the braised meat. I believe there was picking going on!! Which is always a good sign that something has worked. And the meal ended with the most exciting part, our first attempt at Portuguese Tarts:

And to top the evening off, T kindly played us choice bits from The Police - Synchronicity Tour DVD ... Sting rocks my world!!

OK the duck recipe we used can be found here:

http://www.trap17.com/index.php/Lor-Ark-Teochew-Braised-Duck-Chinese-Recipe-Party33_t58843.html

SO get "quacking" already (groan!!) - you know I was waiting to finish writing this whole damn post (all 2 parts of it) just so I could type this at the end.

Get Quacking Get Get Quacking!! - hehe