Peking Duck Bites
Every Christmas Eve, my family gets together for a big dinner. This year, Jarno and I went all out for my family. It was our first Christmas as a couple and it was the first time that a lot of my family members would be meeting Jarno as well.
I made pigs n’ a blanket, stuffed mushrooms, peking duck bites for starters which went in about 5 minutes of people walking through the door.
For the main course, I made a 12 pound turkey, cornbread sausage stuffing, sweet potatoes, mushroom cheese risotto, walnut crusted chicken, and roasted veggies.
Originally, I was going to make Peking Duck Spring Rolls but I didn’t want to be over the frying pan dodging splashing oil. Instead, I decided to wrap them in pastry dough and they came out fantastic! I’m definitely going to make these at my next dinner party.
I enlisted the help of my fabulous fiance, Jarno, to wrap the little bites.
- 1 Roasted whole duck de-boned (You can get one at your local China Town, they’re usually hanging in the window)
- 3 whole carrots julliened
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 bunch of scallions
- 2 onions
- 1 cucumber
- hoisin sauce
- 2 packages of the pillsbury dough puff pastry
Dice the onions and garlic. Then throw the duck, the carrots, garlic, onions, and scallions into a food processor. I usually take half the duck and put it in the food processor and the other half i cut up myself, it’s nice to have some chunky pieces of duck. Take a large frying pan and put about a table spoon of oil in and toss in the garlic and onions. Let them fry for about a minute or so and add the duck filling in. Add some hoisin sauce, I usually eyeball it, but probably about 2 or 3 tbsp. Stir fry for about 5 more minutes just to let everything heat up and the flavors come together. Cut the cucumber into cubes (you’re going to add those in later).
Get out your baking sheets and line and grease them. Unroll your pastry dough and cut into 2” x 2” (5cm x 5cm). Then take a spoonful of the duck and place in the middle of each section of puff pastry. Add a couple of cubes of the cucumber in (I add them in later b/c I don’t want them to get soggy). Gather everything in the middle and pinch to close. This should make about 70 pieces or so, you can cut the recipe in half for a smaller dinner party, I had about 25 people over for Christmas so large quantities were needed!
Pop the trays, you should fill about 2 baking sheets, into the oven for about 17 minutes until they puff up.
Serve with hoisin sauce and enjoy!
What’s your favorite holiday appetizer?
