Smoked Duck Kueh Pie Tee

So we got inspired by the smoked duck prata wrap and respawned it in a deep fried cracker cup... no idea what you call it in English, but in Singapore we call them kueh pie tee. It's basically wheat batter, deep fried in these cup shapes. Most people just buy them off the shelves nowadays.

Each cup's pretty small - about 1.5 inches tall. So after adding the other ingredients, you can pretty much pop the whole thing into your mouth.

We normally put Peranakan stewed shredded turnip mix in first, followed by Asian salad veggies like cucumber and fresh coriander leaves, boiled shelled prawn and garlic chilli sauce inside these cups.

This time, we used these ingredients:

From the bottom in an anticlockwise direction, it's black pepper smoked duck, coriander leaves, shredded cucumber, spring onions, and two sauces - one spicy and the other non-spicy, but otherwise similar.

Basically, you just put everything in according to the proportions that you like, and drizzle the sauce over it. At parties, they're a really fun snack because you not only get to assemble each cup yourself and pick the amount of ingredient that you want, but you'll also be chatting with friends all the way as you assemble and pop kueh pie tees into your mouth one after another. =D

This is the final product.

I thought the colours were not bad, although we were thinking we could add shredded red chilli as an ingredient to give it more vibrance. And the chilli spice and flavour would probably go well with the other ingredients. Well, next time then.

So how was it? Awesome! Probably better than the prata version. The only problem was that the smoked duck we got wasn't too flavourful... either the flavour did not penetrate the duck meat, or else the pepper overpowered the smoked flavour... or both.

Otherwise, the sweet-savoury sauce, crunchy cracker shell, crisp veggies and chewy meat came together for a great munching experience. And of course, the flavours are a tried and tested combination, as this is similar to Peking duck wrap in taste. The only difference, as mentioned, was the pepper on the smoked duck.

Sauce Recipe

Since what we did was an improvised version of the standard Peking duck wrap sauce, this is what we used for reference.

• Hoisin sauce (savoury): 1 part
• Sweet plum sauce (sweet and sour): 2-3 parts
• Sweet Thai chilli sauce (sweet and spicy): optional
• Sesame oil (rich sesame flavour): add as desired
• Chinese wine: minimal, but somewhat optional or as you desire

Basically, each of the sauces has a different taste, so you can decide which you prefer and add more of it. Initially, we added less sweet plum sauce, so it was more savoury. Then I decided that the smoked duck wasn't sweet enough, and I personally preferred the sweet flavour, so we added more plum sauce.

Improvements

1. Honey smoked duck should have been used, in my opinion. The black pepper just detracted from the whole experience. Honey would have added to the sweet taste, then maybe the sauce can be less sweet with less plum sauce, so you can get more of the Hoisin flavour.
2. As mentioned, red chilli could have been added for more colour and that extra kick.
3. I felt that the coriander flavour was not as prominent as I would have liked, so perhaps I would have preferred more of the stems than the leaves, which seem to provide more flavour and also pack some crunch.