Duck and Mango Salad

To save time you can grab a ready-roasted duck from your local Asian supermarket. I prefer to roast my own as you get more meat and know how its been cooked. 

Ingredients
(serves 2 as a main) 
Takes 1 to 1½ hours to roast duck; 15 minutes to assemble salad) 

• 4 roasted duck legs (drumstick and thigh together)
• 100g snow peas, trimmed
• 2 large ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 ripe avocados, peeled and chopped
• 1 red capsicum, deseeded and finely sliced
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 150g baby spinach or salad of choice
• 1/4 cup of mint, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup of coriander, roughly chopped
• 1 cup of sprouts like mung bean sprouts or sangro

ginger sesame dressing

• 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a jar place all the dressing ingredients,  adding salt and pepper to taste, then shake well. 

How to roast duck legs

1. Preheat oven to 150°C
2. Always thaw your duck legs before cooking.
3. Smooth the duck legs out and remove any excess fat around the edges.
4. Score the skin all over - this will allow the fat layer under the skin to render, during cooking.
5. Rub salt & pepper into the skin. I left mine in the fridge overnight, it gave the duck a nice salty flavour that balances well with the rest of the ingredients.
6. Place duck legs skin side down on an oven rack, for about 1 to 1½ hours, turning about ½ hour before the end of cooking.
7. Remove the legs from the oven and rest for 10 minutes.

Assemble Salad

1. Strip the duck from the bones, discarding all skin, bones and fat.  Toss the duck meat with half the dressing.
2. Pour boiling water over the snow peas, drain immediately then cover with cold water & drain again.
3. Arrange the snow peas, mangoes, avocados, capsicum, spring onions, baby spinach, mint, coriander and bean sprouts on a big platter.  Add the duck and toss everything together with remaining dressing.

Adapted from Annabel Langbein, Free Range in the City