Crispy duck lettuce wraps

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Karen shares a colourful recipe for your next Chinese meal. These crispy Gressingham duck lettuce wraps are simple to prepare and they make a great communal sharing meal. All components can be placed in the middle of the table for individual wrapping

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I love Chinese New Year and I remember with mounting excitement how much fun it was when I lived in Hong Kong. I also remember being given the little red packets of money (hongbao - 红包) by our Amah and all of the local tradesmen and women - there may have been only a few HK dollars in there, but I treasured the attractive packets and kept them on my “treasures box”……in fact, I still have a few packets from the 1970’s!

Unlike our New Year, the Chinese celebrate their New Year over fifteen days, which makes for a fortnight of festivities and fun! They take time off work, visit relatives, go to the races and of course watch all of the dragon and lion dancers in the teeming streets. I remember the food was amazing, and we would enjoy little crispy dumplings, wonton, grilled corn on the cob and spring rolls as we wandered amongst the crowds on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

One of the recipes that my mum brought back from Hong Kong to the UK is for the “Lucky Lettuce Wraps” – these were always served at Chinese New Year as lettuce holds a very significant place in the canon of special occasion ingredients - the word in Cantonese is very similar to the word for “rising fortune” and so lettuce assumes a status of being a lucky vegetable. The other auspicious ingredients are tangerines and oranges, once again, the names for these fruits are very similar to the words for luck and wealth respectively.

But back to my Lucky Lettuce Wraps – mum used to make hers with chicken or fish, but as I love Peking duck, I decided to create a new version using crispy skinned duck. My lettuce wraps or parcels as I like to call them are very easy to prepare and they make a great communal “sharing” meal, as all of the components can be placed in the middle of the table for individual “wrapping”. You CAN use Peking duck style cooked duck, but we love the tender slightly pinker version using duck breasts and then slicing it thinly for wrapping enjoyment.

I hope you will enjoy my recipe for Lucky Lettuce Wraps (Crispy Duck Parcels) this Chinese New Year, and if you prefer to serve these with plum sauce, as is traditional with duck, that’s fine, it’s just that we love the tang of chilli and garlic sauce with these.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Method

1
Rub the salt, five spice, ginger root, chillies, minced garlic and soy sauce into the duck breast and allow to marinate for 30 minutes, turning over half way through
2
Heat a wok or frying pan and add the duck breast with the marinade skin-side down. Cook over a medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, with a heavy weight on top of the duck to keep all of the skin in contact with the heat
3
Turn the heat down and turn the duck over. Continue to cook for a further 5-10 minutes, depending on how you like your duck cooked. Flip it over for 2-3 minutes at the end of cooking to crisp up the skin
4
Remove the duck from the heat and allow it to rest for 3 minutes. Carve very thinly and arrange the meat on a platter
5
Place all of the wrap serving ingredients along with the duck in the middle of the table, and allow each diner to make their own parcels
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Karen Burns-Booth is a freelance food & travel writer, recipe developer and food stylist with a passion for local, seasonal ingredients.

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