Recipes

Take the duck out of the fridge. Cut off and discard the parson’s nose with a pair of scissors and remove any excess fat around the cavity. Leave the duck to come to room temperature. Lightly prick the skin all over with a cocktail stick.

Mix together the five-spice, salt, pepper and sugar, smear the duck all over with the oil, then sprinkle and pat the rub all over, and inside the duck.

Cut one of the clementines in half, pop one half inside the duck with the bulb of garlic.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350°F. Once hot, pour water from a freshly boiled kettle into a deep roasting tin, to come about 1cm up the sides, and place a rack on top. Sit the duck on it, breast-side up, and cook in the oven for 1½hours. Then take the tin carefully out of the oven and, again, very carefully prick the duck all over again. Using oven gloves, remove the duck, pouring any liquid collected in the cavities into the roasting tin, put the duck onto a baking sheet, or large plate, and leave to cool before transferring to the fridge(within 2 hours), uncovered, for a day or two.

Once the cooking liquid cools down a little, carefully pour into a large, heatproof jug and leave to cool completely, then refrigerate. Remove the solid fat into a jar, and keep in the fridge for future roasting.

About 2 hours before you want to roast your duck, take it out of the fridge and set breast-side up, on top of a wire rack sitting over a deep roasting tin, to come to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/425°F. Lightly prick the duck skin all over with a cocktail stick once again.

Transfer the duck to the hot oven and roast for 50-60 minutes, half way through, turn the duck around and brush with the honey. Continue roasting until the skin is crisp and bronzed. You will get some stippled dark brown patches, but this is normal. Remove from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes.

While the duck is cooking, make the plum sauce. Place the plum halves in a roasting tin with the vinegar, cinnamon stick, star anise, bay leaf and sugar. Squeeze the juice of two and a half clementines over, cover the tray with foil and place in the oven to roast for 25 minutes until the plums start to give.

Remove the plums from the oven, give them a stir and scrape the tin to break them up a little. Remove the spices and bay leaf before tipping into a serving bowl.

Carve the breast thinly and remove the meat from the legs or leave them whole, then arrange on a warmed plate, along with any crisp skin that’s left on the bird. Spoon a little of the plum sauce over the duck and serve the rest on the side.  I like to serve this with stir-fried greens and noodles.