17th July 2023

I am trying to increase my food knowledge and become a better cook. There are some techniques I have not tried and smoking was one of them.  Ages ago on Masterchef Australia I saw Pete Evans cook a tea smoked duck breast which always intrigued me because I love duck and wondered how the tea would flavour it so last night I decided that I would try it. 

Whilst I loved the look of Pete's duck, I wanted my dish to have a more Asian feel to it so thought I would smoke the duck as he did and make an orange or mandarin sauce with star anise and replace his ravioli and spinach with dumplings and use pak choi. Also to experiment we made one of the dishes a crispy duck leg.

The smoked duck breast was interesting and did add a different flavour to it but to be honest the duck leg was with its crispy skin gave the whole dish a better taste.  I am really glad we tried the smoking though.