Spiced-honey roasted duck with rice and Asian greens

With some punchy flavours, this dish has a sublime spice balance. Molasses, honey and brown sugar make the rich sauce the perfect coat.

• serves

  4

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  1:20 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 2kg duck
• 2 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp sichuan pepper, toasted

Sauce

• ¼ cup soy sauce (gluten-free if you would prefer)
• ½ cup leatherwood honey
• ¼ cup molasses
• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 fresh long red chilli, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 3 star anise
• 1 cinnamon quill
• rice, steamed (to serve)
• Asian greens (to serve)

Refrigerating time overnight

Instructions

Wash the duck inside and out and pat dry.

In a mortar and pestle grind pepper with salt. Salt inside and outside of the duck with the salt mix. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.

Preheat oven to 200°C

Lightly pierce the duck skin with a skewer, being careful not to pierce the flesh.

Place duck, breast side up, in a roasting pan on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 1 hour and 10mins, basting with duck fat every 20 mins.

Meanwhile, heat a saucepan to medium heat. Combine sauce ingredients and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce thickens slightly.

Remove duck from the oven and pour sauce over duck. Return to oven for 10 mins; keep watch so the sauce doesn’t burn.

Serve with steamed rice and Asian greens.

Photography by Brett Stevens. Styling by Marcus Hay. Food preparation by Angela Devlin.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.