An Assignment Submitted by
Each family has a recipe that is very significant and special for it. For our family this recipe is Peking Duck Tacos. This is a recipe of Chinese cuisine that is very significant for our family. We got used to preparing it for the biggest celebrations and all our friends know about it. This is a ‘statement’ dish of our family. It was prepared by the members of our family long before I was born. This dish is very unusual for the American cuisine because it is far more complicated than the most dishes of it, and also it uses spices originating from China that bring an unusual flavour to it.
Peking Duck Tacos are s prepared by women in our family, and at the moment my grandmother is a real professional in preparing it. I try to learn to prepare this dish from her. All of the ingredients must be very fresh, especially the meat. As for me, duck meat is much more tasty and flavoured than the chicken meat so we never substitute it with chicken. It is also important to choose a whole duck for this recipe and add different parts of it to the tacos to make the taste more sophisticated. Several parts of the duck such as duck breast is too dry to prepare the tacos, however if a dietary option is required, using only the duck breast is perfect.
Duck is a very significant element of the Chinese cuisine and the Chinese have been preparing it for many centuries. It appeared in a lot of cookbooks, and was one of the favourite ingredients in the dishes prepared for the Royal family. The Peking Duck became very popular all over the world in the early 20th century when the Chinese culture has been spreading abroad with the waves of migration. One of the interesting facts about the Peking Duck is that it was served as a part of an official dinner prepared for President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger when they first visited China in 1971.
There are several things important in the process of preparation of the Peking Duck Tacos. First is the famous Chinese 5-spice blend used almost everywhere in Chinese cuisine. This blend consists of:
star anise;
cloves;
Chinese cinnamon;
Sichuan pepper;
fennel seeds.
The recipe is quite complicated and consists of many steps, so it is written down in our family cookbook. The ingredients include:
1 Peking duck;
2 stems of leeks;
1 ginger root;
1 garlic clove;
1 daikon root;
2 cucumbers;
8 tortillas;
4 tablespoons of syrup;
1 cup of marinated red tofu;
2 tablespoons of chu-hou paste;
oyster sauce;
red wine vinegar;
sweet rice wine;
soy sauce;
hoisin sauce;
black beans paste;
sesame seeds paste;
unagi sauce;
sesame seeds;
vegetable oil;
Chinese 5-spices blend.
First, the salt is being heated on a dry pan. Then the spice blend is added and after a minute the pan is taken off the heat and sesame seeds are added. In a separate bowl the marinade is prepared: the garlic is smashed with a knife, the garlic is cut into pieces and the leek stem is cut circles. Everything is mixed with half of the hoisin sauce and half of the oyster sauce.
After that the duck is prepared: it is disembowelled and grated from the inside with a mix of salt, 5 spices and sesame seeds and is filled with the prepared marinade. The skin is secured with bamboo sticks or toothpicks and taken into the fridge overnight.
The syrup is heated in the microwave oven for about one minute and mixed with the red wine vinegar. The duck is put into boiling water for two seconds and after that it is greased with the mix of syrup and vinegar. It should be left in a ventilated area for around four hours so that the skin becomes dry. After that the duck is put into the oven and baked for 1 hour 20 minutes by 160 °C.
Afterwards the filling is taken out of the duck and in the middle an incision is made to separate the breast and legs. The bones should be deleted from the legs too. The vegetable oil is heated and poured on the skin of the duck which makes it crispy. After that the meat is cut into big slices.
The tacos are fried quickly on a dry pan for them to become lightly browned but remain soft. Each taco is greased with unagi sauce. The leek stems and cucumbers are cut into pieces.
The soy sauce and the rest of hoisin sauce and oyster sauce, the black beans paste, sesame seeds paste, red marinated tofu and rice wine are mixed in a saucepot. All these ingredients are boiled during 10 minutes on a small heat. The mixture should be mixed with a whisk and water should be added if necessary. The cucumbers, duck and leeks are put on every taco and the sauce is poured on top. The daikon is cut into long thin flakes and put on the tacos.
This dish is good to serve with beer or lemonade. It is a signature dish on all of our family gatherings or at parties with friends. It should be prepared beforehand as the process is long and difficult, but all the efforts are worth the original taste.
I interviewed my grandmother about the Pecking Duck Tacos and found out that this dish is being prepared on a regular basis in our family for a long time already. With the emergence of globalization the specific ingredients of the Chinese cuisine became available in the United States, and it is easy to find the daikon, red marinated tofu and the specific sauces and pastes used in the recipe in special Chinese supermarkets. In the past the tacos were also prepared at the kitchen, however nowadays it is easier and more convenient to buy them.
There is a strong national background behind the stories about the things we do every day and on special occasions. Such simple things as preparing the meals that originate from your country makes a significant input on the cultural development of the family or a household. Preserving small traditions like preparing special food for holidays makes the relations in the family stronger, and connects the people with their origins. In my personal opinion it is important not to forget your own culture in a mix of different ones and in a general mode of globalization.
The process of preparing food with your parents or grandparents is a great way of sharing experience, emotions, culture and knowledge, to listen to stories from the past and recognize one’s own identity. I would like to preserve this knowledge for the later generations and I will be happy to teach my children such things as preparing the signature dish of our family. I hope this tradition will be alive for a long time and connect the family and friends with each other.
References
Buwei, Y.C. (1945). How to Cook and Eat in Chinese. New York: John Day.
“Chinese 5 Spices Tacos” (2015). The Unmanly Chef. Retrieved from http://theunmanlychef.com/2016/05/02/chinese-5-spice-duck-tacos/
“Peking Duck Tacos” (2014). The American Saveur. Retrieved from http://americansaveur.blogspot.com/2011/08/peking-duck-tacos.html
