Eleanor Hoh

Crispy Skin Roast Duck Lettuce Wrap, a Perfect Party Appetizer

September 9, 2021 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

This Crispy Skin Roast Duck Lettuce Wrap is a Perfect Party Appetizer! It’s an explosion of flavors, textures and colors in every bite. Best part? You can make most of it ahead so you can spend more time with your guests. I guarantee your guests will beg to learn how to make this.

WATCH 2 minute video on my Youtube channel HERE!

It will give you a quick overview.
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I was inspired to make this Crispy Skin Roast Duck Lettuce Wrap after a recent visit to an upscale Asian Restaurant in Miami. It was such a disappointing experience on 3 counts: the duck was over sauced so you couldn’t even taste the duck; the sauce dripped onto a flimsy lettuce leaf; the lettuce leaf was so small, it couldn’t “wrap” over the duck.

A messy experience but it motivated me to make my own version. I’m so happy you’ll able to avoid those mistakes when you make your own Crispy Skin Roast Duck Lettuce Wrap.

I had a quarter of a frozen Chinese Roast Duck in the freezer and that’s what gave me the idea to crisp up the duck skin separately in my wok.

Ingredients and Dishes You’ll Need…Enough for 4

Presentation
Have fun expressing your personal flair with a spectacular platter. Romaine or Ice Berg Lettuce are best. Put nuts in bowl with wood spoon. Use what you like but chop small, mine were peanuts.

Roast Duck
Use a bigger bowl for the duck and vegetables.
Buy ready cooked duck from Maple Leaf Farms (not sponsored) or one of those extremely succulent hanging roast duck from an Asian market or restaurant.

Duck Preparations
Shred the duck meat. Keep the duck bones for making broth. Separate the duck skin and slice into strips.

Vegetables
Cube crunchy veggies like multi colored bell peppers, chayote or jicama or both, chopped scallions, garlic and ginger.

Dash of San-J Tamari and Medium Drinking Sherry are all that’s needed to season the vegetables and duck.

Hoisin Sauce Dip (see links below)
Combine these really well in your small serving bowl with a wood spoon…
1/2 jar of Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce
Dash of Sesame Oil
Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce to taste
Half lime juice

Fry Duck Skin
NOTE: please don’t use non stick pans, they are not safe for high heat cooking.

Use a cast iron wok or stainless steel pan on medium heat. No oil is needed. Add in all the duck skin. Keep moving them around with spatula, otherwise they’ll burn.

Crispy Duck Skin is DONE!
Scoop out duck fat into a glass bowl, leaving about a tablespoon in the wok for frying the vegetables.

Fry Vegetables and Duck
Heat the duck fat till shimmering
Add in garlic and ginger
Add all the vegetables in
Add shredded duck
Add dash of San-J tamari and medium drinking sherry

Guest Plates
Round up some long plates for guests to make their own lettuce wrap.

Now for the fun part, showing your guests how to eat this Crispy Skin Roast Duck Lettuce Wrap!

Slather Hoisin Sauce along length of Romain Lettuce Leaf, then add the duck and vegetables, sprinkle a few peanuts and top with crispy duck skin. Close one end to prevent the filling from falling out.

WOW, DE-LIGHT-FUL!

WATCH 2 minute video on my Youtube channel HERE!

P.S. I make a signature Rainbow Lettuce Wrap with ground turkey in my cooking classes and it’s always a big hit.

Check it out HERE!

As always, I want to encourage you to Cook Like a Wok Star! This means putting your creative spin on it, using ingredients on hand, not worry so much about exact measurements BUT keep tasting so you can adjust flavors to suit your taste buds and make your dish full of FLAVOR, TEXTURE and COLOR.

MY AMAZON STORE: https://www.amazon.com/shop/wokstar

You’ll find wonderful utensils and seasonings that help you Cook Like a Wok Star! You’ll cook faster, get creative and your food will taste amazing! Your price is not affected by these links and I will get a teeny commission, yippee. This will help maintain my blog as I do not post advertising that make your head spin.

Similar Tools I used in this video:

Last lick spatula: https://amzn.to/2X6co9b
Presentation Platters: https://amzn.to/3jSinXG
Presentation Bowls: https://amzn.to/2Vs6Fde
Small wood serving spoons: https://amzn.to/3yPjg7N

Seasonings:

San-J Tamari, best tasting soy sauce, NO MSG, Non GMO, GF, wheat free: https://amzn.to/3h21wQt
Koon Chun Brown Bean Sauce: https://amzn.to/2WUawk5
Sesame Oil: https://amzn.to/3zKJbyG
Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce: https://amzn.to/3hjngaX

Best Pork Belly Tacos on a moment’s notice…

May 25, 2021 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

The Best Pork Belly Tacos on a moment’s notice came about when I only had two strips of grilled pork belly left over. Not enough for a complete meal but looking in my fridge and finding Cauliflower Sandwich Thins (my current fav) and many possible fixings, I had an epiphany.

That’s how the Best Pork Belly Tacos on a moment’s notice came together…

USE VEGGIES YOU HAVE, MINE WERE…
asparagus
shimeiji mushrooms
red bell peppers
red onion
scallions

Chop them into cubes, a variety of crunchy, soft and colorful veggies.

FRY UP!
Of course I fried up in my cast iron wok, the best for frying anything.
Avocado oil
Diced garlic and ginger
Dash of San-J tamari and medium drinking sherry
Squirt of fresh lime or lemon

USE A TACO ALTERNATIVE
Cauliflower Sandwich Thins from Outer Aisle are ketogenic, low glycemic and low carbs but most importantly, so tasty compared to other “healthy” taco versions. They hold up really well. Grab them here. Just warm under broiler.

PORK BELLY…
These pork belly strips were grilled with my own mix of dry spices. Warm them under the broiler and slice into bite size pieces.

Now we’re ready to put together the Best Pork Belly Tacos…
Lay out Cauliflower Sandwich Thins, pile on veggies first, then pork belly, top with kimchi (optional), swirl a dollop of Chosen Food’s Avocado Mayo and you’re DONE!

I’ve now created my own gourmet Best Pork Belly Tacos on a moment’s notice!

Delicious with a sharp arugula salad sprinkled with chopped tomatoes, red onion and walnuts with my own vinaigrette.

Would love to hear your Taco creation and what alternative tacos you use as a wrap?

Note: I’ve included Amazon affiliate links to make it easy to access good ingredients and seasonings I use. I will get a commission if you click the links, yippee.

Eat Dinner at Lunch…

February 15, 2021 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Here’s a Chinese New Year Resolution you might consider…eating your main meal at lunch, and eat lighter at night!

This makes total sense and has so many positive health benefits from everything I’ve read. No matter what diet you’re on, you could benefit from eating your main meal at lunch.

As they say, Eat like a King for breakfast, a prince at lunch and pauper for dinner. Another says, Big Lunch, Small Dinner Plan.

1. Eating the main meal during lunch gives us more time to digest instead of going to bed with a full tummy.

2. For a blogger like myself, it gives me more time to videotape.

3. Lunchtime provides more natural light to videotape.

4. I’m not rushing home from my evening walk and feeling pressure with time constraints to prep and cook.

Anyone doing this? Share in comments if this swap works out better for your digestion or other reason?

Ha, ha, we’ve had pescatarian for last 3 days, not intentionally but just happened.

The usual stir fry process: hot wok, add oil (avocado or grape seed), add garlic & ginger. Cook vegetables first, take out, then use same steps for protein.

Vegetables were Baby Yu Choy or Choy Sum, the name I grew up calling them. Had some snow pea tips and cubed a baby Bella. This is the size between a bell pepper and mini sweet pepper.

Wild caught shrimp were so delicious and tasted of the ocean vs farm raised, what a difference.

Salmon skin came out juicy, golden and crispy, yay. Both were fried in my cast iron wok and Iwatani gas stove setup with just a sprinkle of Celtic sea salt. If you want crispy anything, dry off well with paper towels before frying.

I’ll keep you posted of our results.

Eleanor Hoh

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