Ingredients:-

• 1 Peking duck 4 1/2 to 5 lbs head intact
• 6 cups Water
• 1 teaspoon Honey
• 4 tablespoons Rice wine
• 2 tablespoons White vinegar
• 5 tablespoons Cornstarch slurry mixed with water
• Vegetable oil
• Scallion brushes and Hoisin sauce as accompaniments

Method:-

• Remove wing tips and feet from duck. Neck skin should be intact with only a tiny hole made about 2 inches above the base of the neck.
• Remove cavity fat and discard.
• Rinse the duck and massage the entire body by rubbing the skin back and forth, loosening it from the meat.
• Make sure skin is not punctured.
• Insert a bicycle pump hose into the neck hole.
• Keep cavity closed as you pump air into the duck -- inflating it until the skin is taut, rubbing and rolling the skin as it is being inflated to distribute air evenly. Hang to dry, in a cool place, for 1 hour.
• In a wok combine the boiling water, honey, rice wine, white vinegar, and cornstarch slurry, and stir until lightly thickened.
• Hold the duck by the hook and dip it in and out of the boiling water, turning it from side to side, while ladling water over the skin.
• Do this until the skin is well coated, about 1 minute.
• Then hang duck up to dry for at least 12 hours or overnight in a draft near a window or other breezy place, spreading paper on floor to catch drippings.
• If no cool area is available, hang duck from back of a chair and blow a fan on it for several hours. (Alternatively, set duck, unwrapped, on a rack with a pan underneath to catch drippings. Refrigerate, turning occasionally.)
• If your oven is large and tall, remove all racks except the top one.
• Preheat the oven to gas mark 7.
• Cover a large pan with aluminium foil to reflect heat and to catch drippings and place the pan in the bottom of the oven.
• Hook the duck vertically over the top rack in the center of the oven over the drip pan.
• Roast for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to gas mark 4 and roast for 1¼ hours.
• To finish the duck: Put the duck in a wok with 4 to 6-inches of oil, heated to 180ºC.
• Ladle the oil over duck.
• Cook the duck in this fashion for 2 1/2 minutes per side to crisp the skin.
• Put the duck on a cutting board.
• Disjoint the wings and drumsticks and place them apart at either end of serving platter, outlining the form of a whole duck.
• With a razor-sharp knife carve the skin on the duck with a very thin layer of meat, trying to make slices as large as possible.
• Transfer them to the platter.
• Remove all the meat from the carcass and cut it into strips about 1 to 2 inches long.

Note:-

C.Mict07