As you Wok it

I have been wok-king quite a bit lately.  Did you know a steel wok improves its non stick quality each time you cook?  Years ago I bought a steel wok from Wing Yip in London.  Wing Yip is a huge supermarket, specialising in Chinese and a number of “flavours of the East” cuisines.  When you go, make sure you have plenty of time allowed for browsing (and shopping) and a good appetite to eat the authentic food in the adjacent restaurant and cafe.  Anyway, back to the wok.  It is made of plain steel, is lightweight and conducts heat very well.  Although before its first cooking debut, you need to season the wok. 

Now that my wok has been put to use a-plenty, it is better than a non stick equivalent.  I cooked a lot of meals with it and tonight I made duck breasts, seasonal veggie stir fry to serve with steamed rice.  Below is my recipe for the panfried duck breasts.

2 duck breasts
About 2 level teaspoons Chinese Five Spice powder
Salt

* Before you cook the duck breasts, it is important you remove them from the packaging and pat dry them.  Leave them out on a plate, skin side up for about 20 minutes so they “come to temperature”.  This is the first step to give you crispy skin and juicy meat.

• When you are ready to cook, remove any sinew from the breast meat (flesh side).  Then score the skin side only with a sharp knife.  Do not cut to the flesh, you only want to make some slashes and/or across to give you a diamond pattern.
• Rub a scant level teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice powder onto the flesh side of each of the duck breasts.  On the skin side, rub salt to draw out any excess moisture.  Pat dry if there is any.
• Take a wok or a non stick frying pan and put the duck breasts in, skin side down THEN TURN ON THE HEAT.  You read it right, start with a COLD pan and you do not need any additional cooking oil.  Turn the heat to medium to high and you will soon see the fat rendering.  You want this to happen.  Check the heat isn’t too high or too low, about medium to high works for me.  Check the skin is turning golden and crispy and the fat melts.  Now you can spoon off some of the fat into a heat proof container.  Cook in this manner for 12-15 minutes before flipping over to cook the flesh side.  You might now need to reduce the heat, so you don’t burn the spice powder and the heat penetrates the flesh evenly.  I like them still pink and juicy in the middle but the protein is cooked, i.e. not jelly-like.  This will take another 5-7 minutes, depending on the size of the meat.
• You can check the doneness by touch, not just poke from the top but also feel the sides to give you a better indication.  A bit like steak cooking.  When done to your liking, remove them from the pan.
• Now you MUST rest the meat.  Put them skin side up on a plate and let them relax.  If you cut them now, all the lovely juices will run off and the meat will be dry.  Rest the meat for 10 minutes or so (I used this time to cook the veggies and get my serving plates ready.)
• To slice them, put them on a clean chopping board, ideally for cooked meats only.  Turn the duck breasts upside down so the flesh side is facing you and slice across the grain evenly.  I find doing it this way gives me even slices with the crispy skin intact.
• Serve with your choice of vegetables and steamed rice.

I hope you will try this recipe at home.   “Hoi Faan Lah” (dinner’s ready!)