Peking-style duck breast

Proper Peking duck is a banquet dish. In Beijing whole ducks are dried for days and roasted in wood-fired ovens. At home you do not need to rebuild your kitchen. Two duck breasts give you almost everything that makes the dish so good: crisp, slightly sweet skin, juicy pink meat, thin pancakes, hoisin, fresh cucumber and spring onion. Autumn is duck season anyway, the breasts are easy to find at the butcher, and this makes a lovely meal for an evening with friends.

The important part happens in the pan. The duck goes skin side down into a cold pan and cooks slowly over medium heat. That way the fat under the skin melts out and the skin turns thin and crisp rather than thick and flabby. Scoring it in diamonds helps. The honey and soy glaze only goes on at the end, otherwise the honey burns. The oven then finishes the meat gently. A probe thermometer takes the guesswork out: at 56 °C the duck is nicely pink.

The thin pancakes are in the freezer of nearly every Asian grocer. Warm them over steam and they stay soft. In the oven they dry out. Bottled hoisin is perfectly fine, and a drop of sesame oil makes it taste rounder. Cut the cucumber and spring onion finely so they roll easily and bring something fresh and crunchy next to the rich duck.

It is best with everything in the middle of the table so everyone rolls their own. Allow about five pancakes per person. A lightly chilled Pinot Noir is a good match. Keep any leftover duck fat in a jar in the fridge for the best roast potatoes the next day.