Tesco Chinese Crispy Aromatic Duck

...Silly question – it’s a Tesco Crispy Duck isn’t it? Well yes, but just in case you are not a regular Tesco shopper and fancy trying it, you can buy ¼, ½ and full ducks from Sainsbury’s and I have also occasionally seen (and tried I might add) the Marks and Spencer’s version.

In reality, providing they are cooked properly, there is very little to choose between them, and prices are very similar. Whichever pack you are thinking of buying, ...
...e-mail dialogue then ensued with Tesco customer service, whereby first they asked me to return the product to them – gulp – at that price and an otherwise bare cupboard, I thought we were meant to eat it .

They then wrote apologising for my illness and assuring me that it had not come from their products – did I miss something? Unless they had the foresight to know that I was going to be taken violently ill in Fuerteventura some 6 ... more

The first time I ate duck, I was 14 years old and it was in a meal prepared by my employer at the local dog boarding kennels; it wasn’t a particularly memorable experience either way, I neither loved, nor loathed it. Duck is a very greasy meat and not to everyone’s liking if they try and conjure up images of the little green and black things floating around their local pond – well I wish to assure you that no ducks were hurt by me during the testing for this product, and apologies in advance to all those veggies out there who by now have probably struck me off their circle of trust.

Fast forward 12 years to my first management position after leaving University and just as I was starting, the security manager was retiring and in, what I was to discover was his usual flamboyant style, my boss decided it would be a good idea to give him a good send off, namely a couple of drunken games of ten pin bowling followed by a Chinese meal in one of the best restaurants in town – having beaten off the competition of 80 or so other applicants, being only two weeks into the job and being the lone female on the management team and knowing he could be volatile (to say the least) then was not a good time to tell him I had quite a severe sensitivity to Monosodium Glutamate. The meal was one of these 6 course jobs for £20 a head, the 2nd course being Crispy Duck – and the love affair began.

Again, fast forwarding another couple of years when shopping in my local Tesco, when I noticed that they had short dated crispy aromatic duck on sale reduced to £3 from its usual £6.99 – for that price it had to be worth a try.

It was at this point that I realised that this was going to involve slightly more work than my usual trick of pricking a few holes in a cellophane cover – and that I would even need to turn the oven on – oh dear.

SO WHAT DO YOU GET FOR YOUR MONEY?
For £6.99 you get half a duck, 10 pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and hoisin sauce. Quite often, the quality of the cucumber can often be sadly lacking – and therefore if you like lots of vegetable accompaniment then you may be wise to buy yourself an additional half a cucumber. I would also say that quite often the number of spring onions supplied, whilst usually good quality, are often few in number.

The pack used to claim that it would serve three to four as a starter, however, I have been known, in the past, to devour the whole thing myself – and as I have said Duck can be very greasy a.k.a. also fattening. These days, the pack claims to feed 1 – 2 people.

You can also purchase a whole duck in Tesco, marketing for £9.99 - the pack contains 12 pancakes and hoisin sauce – but I am afraid there are no vegetables. I once asked an MBA colleague who was actually a Director of the company who produced the product for Sainsbury’s why they didn’t include the vegetables and he stressed the very point that I raised above about the quality, in particular, of the cucumber – their customer feedback indicated that people would rather buy their own.

PREPARATION
Ooooh – this is the fun part – the duck needs to be cooked in an ovenproof dish at 220C for around 40-45 minutes – whilst this is happening, you need to ensure that you take the veg and hoisin sauce out of the fridge to ‘warm’ up. The cucumber and spring onions need to be shredded as finely as you can manage (How they get them looking so perfect in the Chinese restaurant is anyone’s guess).

DO NOT DO THIS UNTIL YOUR DUCK IS READY TO SERVE

The pancakes can be cooked in one of two ways:

they can be placed on a plate and steamed over a saucepan of boiling water for 6 minutes, or in the microwave for between 30 – 50 seconds dependant on its power.

A little tip here to remember with both these methods, if you are unlikely to consume all the duck in one go, then I would avoid doing this. Once cooked, or if overcooked, the pancakes very quickly begin to resemble tasteless popadoms. Personally I select the number I want to have immediately, lay them on a plate and heat them for 10 seconds each side in the microwave – any longer than this and you will see them start to puff up, go hard and if you try to roll them they will simply break into little pieces.

NOW ONTO THE FUN PART
Your duck has been in the oven for the allocated time, what do you do now I hear you scream? Before you can wrap them in those dinky pancakes eagerly awaiting their fate, you need to shred the duck – this can be done using two forks – one to hold the duck in place, the other to scratch the meat off.

Personally, I use two plates, remove the meat from the bone as quickly as possible and shred it away from the bone with a little help from a very sharp knife – this is actually quite an exhausting process and very fiddly – there is also the risk that if you are partial to crispy duck you will find yourself picking, the process has to be quite quick or the duck will lose it’s heat. The outer skin of a duck can often have fat underneath it – ensure that you remove any of these or it will bring a not so nice experience to those delicate taste-buds.

YOU NOW HAVE YOUR SHREDDED VEG AND DUCK AND SOME HEATED PANCAKES – WHAT NEXT?
Any good Chinese person will tell you that you should rub the hoisin sauce over the pancake, insert some veg and duck, and then fold over and eat as you would a hot-dog. Whilst this always seems to work in the restaurant, personally I have found that placing firstly the veg, then the duck, and then sprinkling the hoisin sauce over the top, the pancake remains warmer longer and does not start to harden – have you ever tried wrapping a rapidly stiffening pancake around your duck – it is not the easiest thing in the world to do.

SO WHAT NEXT?
Consume rapidly before little critters like my other half start filching duck for their sandwiches as fast as the poor little thing could probably swim beforehand.

THE TASTE
How to describe!!!! Eeeek , delectably juicy and crunchy pieces of a strongly flavoured savoury meat combined with the softness of the veg, and the sweetness and tang of the hoisin sauce make this the closest eating experience to sexual.

If prepared properly you will find it melts in your mouth and will leave you wanting, rather begging for more. If you are finding bits of fat, then you either haven’t cooked or shredded it properly.

SO WHERE CAN YOU BUY IT FROM?
Silly question – it’s a Tesco Crispy Duck isn’t it? Well yes, but just in case you are not a regular Tesco shopper and fancy trying it, you can buy ¼, ½ and full ducks from Sainsbury’s and I have also occasionally seen (and tried I might add) the Marks and Spencer’s version.

In reality, providing they are cooked properly, there is very little to choose between them, and prices are very similar. Whichever pack you are thinking of buying, check the status of what vegetables the pack contains as there is nothing more frustrating than fancying this as a family snack on a Sunday night, or when preparing for a dinner party to discover that your box does not contain the correct accompaniments.

THE BAD NEWS?

Where do I start? Something as lush as this has to have a downside, and that is lots and lots of calories:

a 305g serving (half the box) contains a mere 631 calories and a stonking 35.4g of fat, of which 14.6 is saturated – bring out the artery stripper quick. The box also claims that the product contains wheat, sesame seeds, gluten, Soya and yeast, so not much use to those on special diets. The good news for me is that it does not contain Monosodium Glutamate (MSG – E621)

AND THE EVEN MORE BAD NEWS?
These days I tend to do most of my shopping in Tesco, as I cannot be trusted going into a Sainsbury’s store as I spend far too much money – not having enjoyed the pleasures of a crispy duck for quite some time (with the aforementioned credentials – even a little of what you fancy doesn’t really do you good) decided a couple of weeks ago that I really fancied one – it was cooked in the usual manner etc etc – and it was at this point I decided to look at the box and noticed “New Improved Recipe” which I discovered meant that there would only be sufficient meat to fill 4 pancakes, and believe me, being seasoned at preparing this meal, and knowing that if the balance of the combination is not right, the effect is wasted, I do not overfill my pancakes.

An interesting e-mail dialogue then ensued with Tesco customer service, whereby first they asked me to return the product to them – gulp – at that price and an otherwise bare cupboard, I thought we were meant to eat it .

They then wrote apologising for my illness and assuring me that it had not come from their products – did I miss something? Unless they had the foresight to know that I was going to be taken violently ill in Fuerteventura some 6 weeks later without a duck in sight - I despair.

Had my final duck today of 2003, and for the foreseeable future as I have to lose 4 stone by the summer, and whilst it looked like some pathetic offering, there was actually quite a substantial amount of meat on it , adequate to fill my 4 pancakes, Martin’s sandwich and the remainder in the bin.

The Best Bit? it doesn't contain a scrap of MSG.

WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN?
Lets put if this way, if it wasn’t for the hassle required to prepare it, the hideous amount of calories and fat in it, and the fact that it costs £6.99 a throw, I would probably eat it every couple of days, but then I guess I would probably get sick of it (how come I have never seen a person of Chinese origin who is overweight? It is not fair).

It is delightfully delectable and very very nice as an occasional treat, whichever of the three stores you end up buying it from.

Sue

 

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