Mock Peking Duck with Pancakes

北京烤素鸭 Běijīng kǎo sù yā   Mock Peking Duck with Pancakes

I used to think that nothing could replace Peking duck pancakes, until I realised that actually it wasn’t the duck that I missed but a crispy, savoury filling, with the sauce, spring onions, cucumber in a floury pancake. This is not authentic, at all, and I can’t even call it a recipe, just a tasty assembly of shop bought ingredients.  This comes together very quickly. A small starter for two.

1 tin of mock duck, torn into medium sized 5 cm chunks*

1 tsp sesame oil

½ tsp Chinese 5 spice powder

½ tsp ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns

12 duck pancakes (they usually come frozen in packets of 6 pancakes)

2 spring onions/scallions, finely shredded

½ a cucumber, peeled and cut into 1 cm x 5cm batons.

Peking Duck Sauce

 Preheat oven to 180C. Set up a steamer to boil. Wrap pancakes in foil and place in steamer. On baking tray rub sesame oil, spices on to mock duck pieces. Roast for 10 – 15 minutes, until crispy.  Take steamer off boil. Slice mock duck into 0.5 cm slivers. Serve with pancakes and accompaniments. (This works out at approx. 3 slivers per pancake)

*I've since roasted the mock duck in larger chunks and find I prefer the contrast between soft and crispy that that brings, so it depends on whether you prefer a strong crunch as to how small you cut the mock duck pre-roasting.