I am obsessed with few things in life, but duck and dumplings are definitely two of them. While shopping for ingredients to make dumplings the other evening, I had the GENIUS idea to combine the two. Even more brilliant, I got my friends to help make them! They didn’t quite turn out quite as beautiful as my usual dumplings (I’ve had a lot of practise) but it was great fun. We also made some spinach and tofu Ladakhi mokmok (aka momos in Tibet or Nepal), which I’ll post separately for the vegematarians.

Ingredients
• 2 confit duck breasts
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 6 spring onions, finely chopped (keep white and pale green parts separate)
• pack of wonton wrappers (30)
• extra vegetable oil for frying
• chilli sauce, black vinegar and/or chilli oil to serve

Method
1. Prepare the duck by shredding the meat and chopping it finely.
2. Remove the skin and fat and gently warm in a frypan or wok until the fat has melted, then discard the skin.
3. Combine the duck meat, hoisin, soy, sesame oil and chopped white spring onions and mix well.
4. Place one teaspoon of filling in the middle of the the dumpling square.
5. Use a little water to wet the edges of the wrapper.
6. Fold opposite corners to close and pinch to seal.
7. To make the tortellini shape, fold opposite corners of the triangle backwards behind the filling and pinch together. (The photos below demonstrate this process using a gow gee wrapper.)
    

8.      Add just enough extra oil to the pan to be about 1cm deep. 
9.      Heat oil until shimmering and drop in some dumplings, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. The dumplings should not be touching each other, and need enough space to be turned easily.
10.      Fry, turning once, until golden brown and crispy on both sides.

You can also boil them, as you can see on the plate below. They have a lovely, slippery texture, but needless to say we all preferred the ones fried in duck fat!

We decided they went beautifully with just some chilli sauce or oil and a little splash of black vinegar, as they already were salty enough and had a hint of sweetness from the hoisin. A nice idea would be to serve them sprinkled with the finely sliced green spring onions, and perhaps a few toasted sesame seeds. But we were all too greedy to wait and just got stuck in!

Liv Mackay is regular blogger for the MasterChef Food Hub and at scoffandquaff.me