Peking Duck, on a Braai!!!

October 05, 2012 by Larry Susman in Meat, Duck, Braai, Big Green Egg, Recipes, Roasts

Peking Duck Pancake Rolls (Buck Ging Ngap)

Well, the weather has certainly not got any better and thoughts turn to what to braai this week? Something different, "somebody said" but without any further help of what to cook! So I looked through my collection of recipe books (Charmaine Solomon is the inspiration for this) for something that you would not think to cook on the braai and this is how I arrived at Peking Duck.

You may ask why, I haven't to foggiest idea why but I know now that it was a great choice if not foolish. The Chinese have been cooking this for centuries and make it look easy, let me tell you it's not. This will take longer than all the other recipes I've cooked so far put together but if you follow these easy steps it will be worth it.

One Duck, will yield three separate dishes, the crackling crispy skin is eaten with mandarin pancakes (this is the most important course and what is meant by "Peking Duck") the flesh is served separately and the bones are then used to make a soup. I am only going to do the first two as I ran out of time to make the soup but have make the stock ready for another day. This is a variation on the traditional way to make this dish but it saves a lot of time and really works well.

Serves 6 - Prep: 8 hrs marinating - Cook Time: 120 mins

Ingredients:

1 x 2.5kg rousing duck
2 tsp of salt
1/3 cup of vodka (a couple of shots for yourself will help with the time it takes to get this meal ready)
3 x tbs honey
3 cups of water
6 slices of fresh ginger

For Serving

2 dozen Mandarin pancakes (I cheated and bought them from my local Chinese restaurant along with the Hoi sin sauce) who's got that much time that you can make these as well? If you have then let me know and you can pop along and give me a hand, lol
Spring onions sliced into slivers
Hoi sin sauce
1 cucumber cut into long slivers
Fresh steamed rice
Fresh stye fried Bok Choi
Pack of prawn crackers to serve the skin on

Method

Wash the duck, drain well and dry thoroughly, inside and out
Rub the salt all over the duck inside and out
Spoon the vodka over and rub all over the duck place the sliced ginger inside the duck
Leave for 4 hrs to marinade turning the bird from time to time so all the skin is in contact with the vodka at some point
Dissolve the honey in the water, rub this mixture into the skin of the duck not missing any place (they use a red dye but I prefer not to)
You now need to tie the duck, so that you are able to hang it in a breezy place, for at least 4 hrs to dry (the Chinese chefs inflated the skin of the bird before hanging it for 24hrs but that was just beyond my abilities and time limits at the moment) I left it in our large fridge, worked a treat
Preheat the braai to about 190°C (375°F)
Place the duck on a rack over a roasting pan that has hot water in it, the duck must be well above the water
Cook for 30 minutes and the turn the heat down to 150°C (300°F) for a further hour
Then bring the temperature back up to its original temp and roast until the skin is crispy and brown all over

All that needs to be done now is to eat this fantastic bird, start by separating the skin from the meat. It should be really easy if you have crisped the skin correctly, start by cutting along the breast as I have in the photo below. Place the skin sliced onto a bead of prawn crackers, this will soak up the excess fat and will be fantastic when you eat them later.

The first course should be the soup that you made with the bones but as I said I have not done this this time.

Second course is the Peking Pancakes, I served this with the skin a little meat and the spring onion and cucumber, along with a little Hoi sin sauce. Wow, I could not believe how good this actually was and it was cooked on a braai.

Third Course was the flesh of the duck served with steamed rice and fresh Bok choi man this was just as good the pancakes.

This braai is just unbelievable, even a novice as myself is cooking what I consider to be a great meal. I'm sure that without this braai I would just be burning these dishes but who knows perhaps I'm getting better after nearly 8 weeks of cooking. Why not give this a go, if you do, please let me know what you think, we all would be interested to hear your stories.

Braaied Indonesian Sea Bream

September 21, 2012 by Larry Susman in Braai, Big Green Egg, Fish, Recipes, Video

Braaied Sea Bream Fillets

People have been asking me if I eat anything else but red meat, well yes I do but only under protest! I'm a true Vaalie and when I grew up chicken was about the only thing that was not red, unless you went down to the coast, I never even thought about eating fish. Well since moving to the UK and getting married to a local girl, things have changed a little. I now eat FISH but only game fish and as I cannot get Yellow Tail or the like in the UK I've found that Sea Bass or Sea Bream is a great substitute.

This week I'm trying a new recipe that I came across for Indonesian spiced fish, I've chosen to use Sea Bream but you could use Red Snapper or something similar if you like. In retrospect it would have been a lot easier if I had left the fish whole instead of having them filleted as cooking them even in a special fish cage was not that easy. So if you have a choice leave it whole for a simpler life and I think you will get a better flavour. Check out the short video at the end to see a pro at work filleting the sea bream.

Serves 4 - Prep: 15 minutes (1hr marinating) - Cook Time: 16 mins

Ingredients:

4 Sea Bream (1 per person) you can substitute Red Snapper if you prefer.
Juice of a lime
4 cloves of garlic chopped
2-3 fresh red chillies, deseeded and chopped
2-3 cm of fresh ginger chopped
4 Spring onions chopped
2 tbsp corn/olive oil plus a little extra for brushing the braai with so they don't stick to it
tbsp sea salt

Method

Preheat the braai to about 200°C (400°F)
Clean the fish (sea video at bottom) and remove the scales
If you are leaving the fish whole then make several diagonal deep cuts across the fish
Put the garlic, chillies, ginger and spring pinion into a blender and blitz it into a paste.
Then add the lime and oil to it and stir in.
Rub the fish with the salt on all sides
Then brush the spice paste over both sides of the fish and if you have left it whole put some inside the cavity as well
Place in the fridge for 1hr to marinate
All you need to do now is cook on both sides for about 6-8 mins and a bit longer if you've left the fish whole
Serve on a bed of rive with some stir fried vegetables.

This was a very quick and simple dish to make that I must say tasted far better than it should! They say simple is better and I think in this case it works just beautifully, the flavour of the fish was not drowned out by the spices as you might have thought. The whole dish was just delightful to eat, the only trouble I'm having now, is Jan is expecting me to cook even more LOL.

I'm in need of a little help, so please leave me a few ideas of what I can cook next in the comment section below. Thanks Larry.

Fruity Duck

September 14, 2012 by Larry Susman in Duck, Braai, Pork, Big Green Egg, Recipes, Roasts

Stuff a Duck!

Wow! Have we been having some great weather down in the South (of the UK), I hope that you are all still Braaiing away and have not become soft and put them away at the first sign of a cloud. Thanks for all the great comments about last weeks Curry, a lot of you have been trying this and I hope that you have enjoyed following us. We had 5 lots of prizes last week and the lucky winners are Geoff Worrall, Jane Phillipson, Jim Bates, Liz Riches-Jones and Linda Tingvoll please email me your delivery addresses and we will get them to you as soon as we can. One thing I ask, please email a photo of your creations so that I can post them on our Facebook page for all to see.

This weeks creation is quick and turned out to be really tasty, for the amount of effort that went in to preparing this dish you will be pleasantly surprised.

Serves 4 - Prep: 10 minutes - Cook Time: 12-16 mins

Method

Preheat the braai to about 200°C (400°F)
Using a sharp knife, cut a long slit in the fleshy side of each duck breast to make a pocket that you will layer the shallots and apricots in. You will then seal the parcel with a skewer
Mix the honey and the sesame oil together in a bowl and brush all over the duck both sides. Then sprinkle with the Chinese five spice all over.
To make the spring onion garnish, cut lengthways down the stem of each on both sides and leave in ice cold water until the tassels open out. Drain well before using.
Cook the duck over a medium heat of 6-8 minutes on each side.
Remove the skewers and cut in half, serve on a bead of rice with the spring onions to garnish.

Ingredients:

4 Duck Breasts (1 per person) you can substitute pork chops if you prefer
155g / 4oz dried apricots
2 Shallots or red onion thinly sliced
2 tbsp clear honey
1 tsp sesame oil (olive if you don't have)
2 tsp Chinese Five-Spice powder (Contains: finely ground Sichuan Pepper, cassia, fennel seed, star anise and cloves)
4 Spring onions to garnish
4 bamboo Skewers (pre soaked in water for 1hr)

The apricots and onions counteract the richness of the duck and its high fat contents make it virtually self-basting so it stays superbly moist and when you garnish it with the spring onion it looks particularly elegant. I served this once again with some steamed rice, I know, I like rice and if you come from SA you eat a lot of it. Give it a try, its quick and tastes as good as it looks. Just don't over cook it, otherwise you might as well cook your flops!

Curry for all Seasons!

September 07, 2012 by Larry Susman in Braai, Food Websites, Beef, Big Green Egg, Recipes, Curries, Video

Beef Durban Curry

Just as I thought autumn was here and we were in for some cold weather, the sun comes back out! Never mind, what I have cooked this week is great at anytime of the year. A Durban Curry, GEE, I can just remember those aromas drifting across the cars in the parking area of the Drive-In back in the old days when my folks took me to see a movie. This is where I first experienced the tradition of a Durbs Curry and Rice, we would park up the car and walk along to the food hut. Where we would queue, for what seemed hours, with that aromatic aroma making our stomachs ache until we got ours. We would then chow down enjoying that unique taste but not really appreciating how good it was, until you look back on it now. Perhaps it is though rose tinted glasses but we would then go and play for a while on the Jungle Gym before the movie started, what a shame my kids can not experience this now days.

For those of you who don't know, Durban Curries are very different to the curries that you have in the UK, they are light, aromatic and not cooked with much oil or ghee. We also eat them with a lot of fruit and salad sambals and a huge helping of Mrs Balls Chutney. A Durban Curry without Mrs Balls is just not acceptable and in some households and could cause a riot.

This is a very authentic curry as it uses dried spices to make the very distinctive flavour, its not a packed sauce as such as you will need to add a few extra ingredients but it is a very easy curry to make with this one shot pack. We have been selling these in our shop and I have made these curries many times before and believe me when I say they taste just like they did back home. I am making a beef one but you can use whatever you like, its great with lamb and even better with mutton. Chicken, seafood or even a vegetable one will also be just as good, so just choose whatever you fancy.

We have teamed up with Werners to promote these during September and you can get 10% off on our website with this code at the checkout SEPT12. Even better we are going to give away 5 sets of Werners Durban Curries and a bottle of Mrs Balls Original chutney to 5 lucky people who write a comment on this blog, see bottom of this article for details.

As I said this is very easy to make but there is a bit of preparation time needed to get this underway. You will have to prepare some rice and symbols to accompany this dish but I will leave that up to you guys to do.

Serves 4 People

Preparation time to chop ingredients 10 mins, cooking time at least 2hrs, the longer you can leave it to simmer the better. Even better make this the day before you want to eat it and just re-heat before serving, this gives the dried spices time to release the aromas throughout the dish.

Ingredients:

1 x pack of werners Curry spices, from Mild to Ex-Hot
500g Meat, cubed to bite size
2 x medium potatoes, peeled and chopped to 2-4 cm (I've added sweet potatoes as well)
3 x medium tomatoes chopped or tin if you're lazy like me
3 x large finely chopped Garlic cloves
2-3 tsp chopped fresh Ginger (i like a bit more personally)
1 x chopped red onion
1 x red pepper chopped
Handful of chopper coriander leaves.
Sambals of your choice, we had bananas, melon, onion, peppers, cucumber and tomatoes all chopped up.

Method:

Put the meat into a bowl and add the dry Powdered Spices from the pack to the meat and stir with a wooden spoon until all the meat is coated and there is no loose power left. Place aside and leave to marinate for a short while.
Add all the Non-Powdered spices to a tablespoon of olive / vegetable oil in a large saucepan or potjie (dutch Oven) over a medium heat and fry off the spices until the aromas from the spices start to smell wonderful.
Add onions and peppers
Add the meat and lightly brown for a few minutes. Sirt constantly to stop the meat from sticking
Add the Garlic and Ginger
Add the potatoes, tomatoes and then pour some water over the whole lot until it just covers all the ingredients .
Leave to simmer for 1-3 hours at 200°C (400°F) if in a oven or on low heat if on a cooker plate, as i said the longer the better
Depending on how you like your curry, simmer the water until it evaporates away to the thickness of gravy that you prefer.

All you need to do is sprinkle the chopped coriander onto the top of the curry and serve on a bed of rice and sambals on the side with some Mrs Ball Chutney.

5 lucky people will win a 4 pack of Werners Durban Curry and a bottle of Mrs Balls Chutney!

All you have to do is leave us some feed back in the comment area below, this is once again an inducement to leave feedback but I really would like to know if we are giving you what you want. So don't be shy, let everybody know what your thoughts are good or bad, I want to know. The lucky winners will be drawn at random by Friday next week and posted on here for all to see.

Watch us cook this on the braai (Big Green Egg)

Who needs a Take Away?

August 17, 2012 by Larry Susman in Food Websites, Chicken, Big Green Egg, Recipes

Tandoori Chicken, so succulent!

Well I hope that you have had a good week, I myself have been struggling to keep up with life its self but who said that this was going to be easy. If it were, then more idiots like myself would be doing this. Good news is that we are becoming agent for the BigGreenEgg so if you want one you will be able to get it from us from next week, keep an eye on our web site www.biltong.co.uk for details.

Thats the moan out the way, what I have in store for you this week is a classic dish that many people who have a weekly take away from the local Indian, never order. Thats because they really don't know what a good tandoori can be like. Imagine a good piece of chicken thats been braaied to perfection and triple that amount of flavour! All this using a ready made pack of spices and I'm going to add a South African twist.

A little bit about a Tandoor - The heat for a tandoor was traditionally generated by a charcoal or wood fire, burning within the tandoor itself (we are using a braai), thus exposing the food to live-fire, radiant heat cooking and hot-air or convection cooking, smoking by the fat and food juices that drip on to the charcoal. Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 480°C (900°F) we are only going to go up to 250°C (480°F) this time as Im still burning the Egg in. It is common for tandoor ovens to remain lit for long periods to maintain the high cooking temperature. The tandoor design is something of a transitional form between a makeshift earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven but the Egg is a great all rounder and perfect for this job.

As you can see from the photo above this is going to be served with Pilau Rice, symbols (chopped up cucumber, peppers, onion coriander) and the classic Mrs Ball Chutney.

Ingredients for Main dish (serves 6)

Large Free Range Chicken
Pack of Nice & Spicy Tandoori spices available from my web site
4 tablespoons of yoghurt
3 cloves of fresh garlic (1/2 teaspoon of dried garlic if fresh is not available)
15g fresh ginger (1/3 teaspoon of dried garlic if fresh is not available)

Method

Either do this yourself or get your friendly butcher to chop your chicken into pieces. Then finely chop the ginger and garlic and add with the first four items of the spices to the yoghurt. Remember to save the last little packet of spices to sprinkle onto the chicken later. Mix them all together into a paste that you are going to brush onto the chicken . Make sure that you coat all sides of the chicken and then place in the fridge to marinate for as long as possible for up to 24hrs. Don't worry if you haven't got time 30 mins will give you a great result.

Next fire up you braai or if you are using an oven get it as hot as possible ideally at 250 °C (480 °F) so that it cooks and seals in the moisture. You should have the carcass of the chicken left, don't through it away make some stock to use at a later date. Its easy just chuck it into a saucepan with a chopped up onion, carrot bit of celery 2 bay leaves and some and a teaspoon of salt, place it in the braai or oven and bring it to the boil then let it simmer for the time it takes to cook the chicken, which should be around 40 minuets.

Note, Sprinkle the last packet of spices on the chicken just before you cook. I am not cooking the chicken directly above the coals, so if you can place a pan or some silver foil below the chicken so that it does not burn. The idea is that you get a high heat to the meat but do not place it over the braai coals where it will definitely burn within a few minutes. While this is cooking prepare your rice and symbols and don't forget the Mrs Ball chutney if you can get some.

The end result is fantastic and the chicken has a loverly crust of spices the will explode in your mouths, it's a very simple dish to make and I hope that you will all agree well worth the little time it takes to make.

Everybody likes a discount!

Get 10% discount off the recipe items for Tandoori Chicken until the 17/09/2012 that we sell on our website with this code when you checkout "tandoori" enjoy.

Peking Duck Pancake Rolls (Buck Ging Ngap)

Serves 6 - Prep: 8 hrs marinating - Cook Time: 120 mins

Ingredients:

For Serving

Method

Braaied Sea Bream Fillets

Serves 4 - Prep: 15 minutes (1hr marinating) - Cook Time: 16 mins

Ingredients:

Method

Stuff a Duck!

Serves 4 - Prep: 10 minutes - Cook Time: 12-16 mins

Method

Ingredients:

Beef Durban Curry

Serves 4 People

Ingredients:

Method:

5 lucky people will win a 4 pack of Werners Durban Curry and a bottle of Mrs Balls Chutney!

Watch us cook this on the braai (Big Green Egg)

Tandoori Chicken​, so succulent!

Ingredients for Main dish (serves 6)

Method

Everybody likes a discount!

Tandoori Chicken, so succulent!