Double-cooked duck

The Chinese are the undisputed masters of duck cookery. The basic Cantonese roast duck hanging in every Chinatown window is utterly superb, tender, crispy skinned and with most of the fat rendered out. The cooking process used to get this result is complicated and basically unachievable at home – witness the numerous Chinese ladies buying whole ducks to take away at the tiny ‘pork and duck’ café in Macclesfield Street.

I wanted to duplicate some aspects of this duck to use in a more