Perfectly cooked crispy duck with spicy plum chutney

Crispy duck with pancakes and hoisin sauce has to be one of the best treats in a Chinese restaurant. Apart from in Chinese restaurants, I have seldom eaten duck - I remember a decidedly iffy duck a l'orange in France and that is about all. I did make a homemade version of duck with hoisin in the summer, following a recipe from Alistair Hendy's Home Cook, which involved braising the duck gently in a potent brew of soy, ginger, rice wine and star anise, amongst other ingredients, before roasting the bird to crisp up the skin. It was delicious. I had intended to make it again, but the three-fold process of braising, draining and roasting has seemed like a lot of effort in cooking terms ever since, not because I am a lazy cook but because the recipe required planning ahead.

Jamie's crispy duck doesn't really need much forward-planning, which is good because we were out most of the weekend and didn't have time to spend in the kitchen. I rubbed the duck with sage salt (obtained by bashing sage and salt together...) and stuffed it with more sage leaves and two halves of an orange, before sitting it on top a bed of the usual vegetables (carrot, garlic, onion, celery...) and roasting it. Meanwhile I made the plum chutney - a delectable mix of plums, sugar, water, cinnamon, star anise, orange zest, ground cumin.

The duck was served with the plum chutney and watercress (I've noticed that Jamie uses a lot of watercress. Is watercress the new rocket? or the new sundried tomato?). I know I've used a lot of superlatives during this project but I can't help myself: the duck was good, but the plum chutney was heavenly. We ate leftover duck and chutney in our sandwiches today but happily there is more chutney left. Some chutneys are too sweet; this one is absolutely perfect.. and the duck was very tasty too. Jamie suggests an alternative to the sage salt - that is, rubbing the duck with five spice and sticking a lump of ginger into its cavity. I suspect I will feel the need to try this alternative, if only as an excuse for more duck and more chutney...