Click on the image, above to submit to Pinterest.
A Chinese Balloon
A Chinese Balloon is a modern Fusion recipe for a classic dish of an oven-roasted duck that's flavoured with Oriental spices and is blown up like a balloon before roasting. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Fusion version of: A Chinese Balloon.
prep time
30 minutes
cook time
60 minutes
Total Time:
90 minutes
Serves:
6–10
Rating: 
Tags : Spice RecipesFowl RecipesFusion RecipesFusion Recipes
Although not a classical recipe in any sense, this Oriental-inspired duck dish is rather fun and looks spectacular if you can manage to do it correctly. For this dish, though, you will need to start with a whole, unprepared (but plucked) bird.
Ingredients:
1 whole duck, plucked but otherwise unprepared
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 tsp Chines five-spice powder
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine (or dry sherry)
1 tbsp honey
a pinch of
Chinese five-spice powder
140ml boiling water
Method:
Leave the feet and heat on the duck then make a small slit beneath the tail and draw (gut) the bird as best you can (take care not to break the skin, or you will not be able to inflate the bird).
Now combine the garlic, Chinese five-spice powder, soy sauce and rice wine in a bowl. Whisk to mix then brush this mixture all over the inside of the bird. Sew up the opening you made to draw the bird as tightly as you can (to ensure the bird is air-tight). Now place a slip knot around the neck of the bird then cut a small slit beneath the bill and insert a tube or straw into this. Use the straw to blow the bird up then tighten the spring as much as you can to keep the bird in its blown-up 'balloon' shape and to ensure that air cannot escape during cooking. Withdraw the straw at this point.
In a bowl, whisk together the honey and pinch of Chinese five-spice powder into the boiling water until completely dissolved. Now, holding the bird by its neck, brush it several times all over with this mixture. Arrange the bird, on its back, in a roasting tin then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and roast for 20 minutes. After this time, whilst still roasting, paint the duck with any remaining honey mixture every 5 minutes for the next 30 minutes.
Turn the oven off at this point and leave the bird inside (with the door closed) for a further 15 minutes. Set on a serving plate and bring the duck 'balloon' to the table.
