Crispy Chinese duck with peaches

If you always order crispy duck and pancakes from a Chinese restaurant, then we guarantee you’ll love this. Sticky sesame peaches take the place of plum sauce, and a big spoonful of jasmine rice helps soak up all the lovely sweet and sour juices.

Q Serves 5 Q Prep 35 mins Q Cook 3 hrs 30 mins

2-2.5kg whole duck

1 peach

2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder 2 tsp Sichuan pepper

2 tsp sea salt jasmine rice and shredded spring

onions, to serve

FOR THE PEACHES

5 peaches, stoned and halved 2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

3 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp chopped ginger

6 tbsp hoisin sauce

2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

1 Heat the oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1. Prick the duck’s skin all over with a fork, but don’t go too deep or you’ll puncture the meat and lose all the juices during cooking. Push the whole peach up into the duck’s cavity, neatly tuck in any excess fat and tie the legs together with kitchen string. Crush together the Chinese five-spice powder, Sichuan pepper and sea salt in a pestle and mortar. Rub the mix all over the duck and sit, breast-side down, on a rack in a roasting tin, and roast for 3 hrs.

2 Meanwhile, prepare the peaches. Put them, cut-side up, in a baking dish – they should fit fairly snugly. Mix the honey, vinegar, sesame oil, ginger and hoisin with 3 tbsp water.

Pour over the peaches, then scatter with the sesame seeds.

3 Remove the duck from the oven and carefully drain any fat from the tin. Turn up the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and flip the duck over so it is now breast-side up. Roast for 30 mins more, with the peaches on the shelf below, until the duck is brown and crispy and the peaches are tender. Slice the duck and serve with the roasted peaches, jasmine rice and shredded spring onions.

PER SERVING 809 kcals, fat 65g, saturates 18g,

carbs 24g, sugars 21g, fibre 2g, protein 31g, salt 3.1g