Crispy Duck with Pancakes

More Chinese New Year festivities - had a few friends over for dinner and decided to attempt crispy duck with pancakes. Nigella has a recipe that just involves whacking a duck into an oven for 5 1/2 hours. I thought it was a bit odd that she doesn't call for any seasoning, so I rubbed my duck with lots of salt and Chinese five spice first. The skin goes all brown and crispy and wonderful and the meat is easy to shred with a fork. Pretty delicious, if I may say so myself.

Crispy Duck with Pancakes (serves 5)

1 duck (mine was 2.6 kg)
salt
Chinese five spice
Pancakes (I bought these in the Asian grocery store, they're frozen and heat up quickly in the microwave)
Peking duck sauce (comes in jars at Asian grocery stores)
6 spring onions
1 cucumber

Preheat oven to 170C/340F. Rub a generous amount of salt and Chinese five spice all over the duck. Place duck on a rack in a roasting tin and cook for five hours. Raise oven temperature to 220C/430F and roast for a further 30 minutes. Remove from oven and place duck on a platter to rest for 15 minutes before serving. Pour duck fat from roasting tin through a sieve and save for other uses (roasting potatoes!)

While duck is cooking, shred the light green and white parts of the spring onions into matchsticks. Slice cucumber into matchsticks.

To serve, shred duck skin and meat with a fork and place warmed pancakes on the table along with bowls of Peking duck sauce and the spring onions and cucumbers. Let guests wrap their own pancakes. Enjoy.