With summer upon us and the weather having a warmer and sunnier feel to it now, it is the perfect excuse to indulge in some light lunches and evening meals that look as bright and cheery as the weather outside. Well, unless it is raining of course as it is now as I write this, but still, a plate of tasty and colourful food is guaranteed to cheer me up and remember that the sun will return and it is a British summer!!
With Gresingham duck being so readily available in the supermarket now, and knowing that with the skin removed once it is cooked (which is a shame when it tastes so good crispy but being on a healthier eating plan means all skin must be removed!), makes it lean, duck has become a more frequently cooked meat in my house. As regular readers will know I am not a fan of too much faffing around when it comes to cooking, and while I can and have cooked a whole duck before a few times now, it does take a while and while the end result is worth all that preparation, I do prefer to take shortcuts when I can. So imagine my delight when I saw that Gresingham now sell 1/2 a crispy duck ready to pop in the oven and is cooked in just 40 minutes!! Genius!
I decided that I would make a Chinese style dish, because quite honestly I love crispy duck served with hoisin sauce, stir fry vegetables and noodles or salad. Using all of these elements, I decided to serve my crispy duck with baked noodle nests, which contained stir fry veg, topped with hoisin sauce and served with a lovely crunchy, fresh salad. I have to admit that I have never attempt to make noodle nests before or bake them in the oven, but they were really nice and I think looked good on the plate too.
Here is how you can recreate this dish yourself
- Gresingham 1/2 Crispy Duck
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 bunch of spring onions, peeled and thinly sliced into batons and then cut in half
- 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into batons and then cut in half
- 1/2 red pepper and 1/2 yellow pepper, both thinly sliced into batons and then cut in half
- 1/2 tsp garlic puree
- 2 blocks of medium egg noodles (I used Sharwoods)
- 1x 195g jar of hoisin with spring onions sauce
- little gem lettuce
- 1 orange
- 1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced into batons and then cut in half
- hoisin sauce (which comes with the duck) for serving
- cook the duck as per the instructions on the packet
- cook the noodles as per the instructions on the packet, drain and put to one side
- meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the spring onions, carrots (keeping 1/2 back for later) and peppers, with the garlic until 'just' cooked - you want them to have some bite still
- add the cooked noodles and the jar of hoisin sauce and stir to mix everything together
- using a silicone muffin tin if you have one (or a regular one greased well), divide the noodle mixture between the 6 holes and ensure the veg is added too
- cook in the oven - these take about 15 minutes so add when the duck is 10 minutes away from being cooked
- make your salad, by placing the lettuce leaves, the cucumber and the carrot sticks into a bowl. Slice some orange slices in half and add to the salad
- remove the duck when it is cooked, and shred - discard the skin if you are being healthy or keep it if not to serve alongside your nests.
- pour the remaining hoisin sauce into a small bowl
- remove the noodle nests from the oven and carefully remove from the muffin tin
- serve your duck with a nest or two and some salad. serve with some hoisin sauce.
This is such a light and tasty dish, and noodle nests are a really good way to serve noodles alongside some crispy duck. It is just nice to eat something familiar, and comforting, but served in a different way. This meal is perfect served alongside a glass of wine, while the sun shines and to share with some good company.
**This recipe is now featured on the Gressingham website which you can see here
I was asked by Gressingham to devise a recipe using their duck. I was compensated for the ingredients I used.
That looks incredible, so tasty and healthy too! You are such a great chef as well as baker. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x
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