In this recipe, duck is roasted until the skin is crisp and the meat is tender. Coated in a sticky plum sauce, it's then piled on top of homemade biang biang noodles, and served with chilli oil and pickled spring onions. This amount of oil should be perfect for four servings, but any leftover oil should be discarded since it contains raw garlic.
Start by making the duck. Preheat the oven to 150°C
Once the duck has roasted for 90 minutes, make the biang biang noodles. Mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl, then add the water bit by bit, stirring as you go
Knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth, then divide into eight even pieces and roll each one into a log-like shape. Lightly coat each one in oil
Leave the logs to rest, covered, for an hour
Add all the ingredients for the chilli garlic oil, apart from the oil, to a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, or a large heatproof bowl
Add the oil to a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat to 140°C
Carefully pour the hot oil over the aromatics – it will bubble up a lot, so stand back and do it in increments if needed
Set aside to infuse while you make the remaining components
Meanwhile, prepare the plum sauce. Bring all the ingredients to a simmer, then turn the heat down to low and let reduce for 5–10 minutes, or until the plums are nice and soft. As it cooks, use the back of a spoon to mash down the plums
To make the pickled spring onions, mix together all the ingredients except the onions
Add in the onions, and leave to pickle for at least 30 minutes
Next, take the duck out of the oven and turn the heat up to 190°C
Brush the skin with some of the plum sauce. Once the oven is at temperature, place the duck back in the oven for 10 minutes or until the glaze is caramelised
Take the duck out and leave it to rest while you make the noodles
Once the dough has rested, bring a large pot of water to the boil for the noodles, and lightly dust two large oven trays with flour
Roll out each of the logs using a greased rolling pin into thin rectangles slightly longer and wider than your rolling pin, on a lightly oiled surface. Make an indent lengthwise in the centre of the rolled out dough using a chopstick or the handle of a thin wooden spoon
Hold the dough by its two short sides and stretch it out, slapping it against the table as you go to help it stretch. The ‘biang’ sound of the noodles slapping against the table is where biang biang noodles get their name!
Use the middle thin indent you made earlier to separate the noodle lengthwise into two very long, very thin pieces
Lay the noodles stretched out – not in a little nest – on a floured tray. Biang biang noodles have a tendency to stick to themselves, so it’s important to make sure they aren’t left in a clump. To avoid this, you can also stretch and cook the noodles to order – two logs makes one portion
Stretch the remaining portions of noodles, and lay them out on the floured trays, trying to make sure they don’t touch the other noodles as much as possible
Cook the noodles in the water for a couple of minutes, or until they are tender – the exact time will depend on how thick your noodles are. We recommend doing this in batches of two noodles at a time, fishing the noodles out and straining them in a strainer once they’re done, and then repeating with the remaining noodles
Once the noodles are cooked, toss them in the heatproof bowl with all the chilli garlic oil
Shred the duck using a fork before mixing with some of the remaining honey-plum sauce
To serve, divide the biang biang noodles between bowls, then top with the duck, violet spring onions, herbs, cucumber, sesame seeds and chilli flakes
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