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Roast Duck in Banana Leaf 

The rich flavour of duck is greatly enhanced by a host of pungent roots, herbs and seasonings in this dish which is invariably a great favorite for everybody.

Our readers have great admiration for the duck and consider it to be a particularly strong animal as it is, like the turtle, one of very few able to survive on land as well as on water. 

Ingredients:
1 whole duck, about 2 kg (4 1/2 lb)
18 shallots, peeled, cut in half and sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled, halved, and sliced
3 stalks lemon grass, finely sliced
5 fragrant lime leaves, finely sliced
6 candlenuts, chopped
5 cm (2 in) ginger, peeled and chopped
8 cm (3 in) fresh turmeric, peeled and chopped
8 cm (3 in) kencur root, peeled and chopped
    1 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed
5 bird's-eye chillies, sliced
   1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
2 teaspoons dried shrimp paste, roasted and coarsely crushed
   1 1/2 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons oil banana leaves, grease proof paper or aluminium  foil for wrapping.

Wipe the duck dry and set aside. Combine all the remaining ingredients except the banana leaves in a bowl and mix well. Rub the duck outside with this mixture and fill the inside of the duck with the remainder. Close the openings of the bird with satay skewer, and wrap the duck in several layers of banana leaves, grease proof paper or foil and steam for 50 minutes. Transfer the duck to a moderate oven and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes.

Remove banana leaves, cut the duck meat up in small pieces and serve with stuffing. When cooked, the meat should be so tender that it falls off the bones.

Helpful hints:
The flavour of this delicious dish will be even better if the final roasting is done over a slow charcoal fire rather than in the oven. Be sure to turn the duck several times if cooking over charcoal.  

 
Arabic cuisine has its roots in tent cookery. Nomadic tribes could use only transportable foods such as rice and dates, or ambulatory stock like sheep and camels in their recipes - which tended to be rough sketches rather than strict formulae. As the caravans journeyed throughout the Middle East, new seasonings and vegetables were discovered and added to the existing repertoire. Each new discovery was incorporated into the diet in quantities palatable to a particular tribe - a fact that many cooks believe is responsible for the anomalies found in some Arabic dishes today. 

The nomadic Bedouin influence is broadened by other cuisines from the Arab world, notably from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, resulting in a highly diverse food and drink culture. Lebanese contributions have been the greatest influence on modern Middle Eastern cuisine, in no small part due to the entrepreneurship of the Lebanese that has helped to spread Arabic cuisine throughout the world from its centre in the Levant in such areas as Aleppo, Damascus, Beirut and Nablus. Lebanese culinary influence and business skills provide the framework for the exotic cuisine recognised internationally as Arabic. 

Hospitality in the Arab world is second to none, and nowhere is it better expressed than in the age-old custom of serving freshly-brewed coffee or mint tea to every guest, whether the gathering be business or social. The foreigner who takes time to learn and experiment with this excellent cuisine will be immediately won over and rewarded with many wonderful surprises. Arabic food can rival any international gastronomy for originality and good taste, and, because it basically comprises simple, natural and easily digested foodstuffs, it ranks high in nutritional value with today's fitness-conscious society. 

Glossary of Arabic Cuisine

Arabic Bread (Khubz Arabi, pita) 
Flat, round bread, which can be easily split to make a sandwich, or broken apart and used as a utensil for scooping food [picture] 
Arayess 
Deep-fried lamb sandwich 
Ataif (gatayef, kataif) 
Small pancakes stuffed with nuts or cheese and doused with syrup 
Baba Ghanoush 
Char-grilled eggplant, tahina, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic purée - served as a dip 
Baharat (bjar) 
Arabic mixed spices 
Bamia 
Baby okra and lamb in tomato stew 
Baklawa (baklava) 
Dessert of layered pastry filled with nuts and steeped in honey-lemon syrup - usually cut into triangular or diamond shapes 
Basboosa 
Semolina tart soaked with syrup 
Bukhari Rice 
Lamb and rice stir-fried with onion, lemon, carrot and tomato paste 
Burghul (bulghur wheat, bulgar) 
Parboiled and dried wheat kernels processed into grain, used in tabbouleh and mixed with lamb in kibbeh 
Cardamom 
Aromatic spice, member of the ginger family, used to flavour Arabic coffee, yoghurt and stews 
Coriander (cilantro) 
Lacy, green-leaf relative of the parsley family with an extremely pungent flavour akin to a combination of lemon, sage and caraway. 
Ejje 
Arabic omelette 
Falafel 
Small deep-fried patties made of highly-spiced ground chick-peas 
Fatayer 
Pastry pockets filled with spinach, meat or cheese 
Fattoush 
Salad of toasted croutons, cucumbers, tomatoes and mint 
Foul (ful) 
Slow-cooked mash of brown beans and red lentils, dressed with lemon, olive oil and cumin 
Gahwa (kahwa) 
Coffee 
Haleeb 
Milk 
Halwa (halva) 
Sesame paste sweet, usually made in a slab and studded with fruit and nuts 
Hamour 
Red Sea fish of the grouper family 
Hommus 
Purée of chickpeas, tahina, lemon and garlic - served as a dip with Arabic bread 
Jarish 
Crushed wheat and yoghurt casserole 
Jebne 
White cheese 
Kabsa 
Classic Arabian dish of meat mixed with rice 
Kebab 
Skewered chunks of meat or fish cooked over charcoal 
Kamareddine 
Apricot nectar used to break fast during Ramadan 
Khubz Marcook 
Thin, dome-shaped Arabic bread 
Kunafi (kunafah) 
Shoelace pastry dessert stuffed with sweet white cheese, nuts and syrup 
Kibbeh (kibbe) 
Oval-shaped nuggets of ground lamb and burghul 
Kibbeh Naye 
Raw kibbeh, eaten like steak tartar 
Koshary 
Cooked dish of pasta, rice and lentils to which, onions, chillis and tomato paste are added 
Kouzi 
Whole lamb baked over rice so that rice absorbs the juice of the meat 
Kufta (kofta) 
Fingers, balls or a flat cake of minced meat and spices that can be baked or charcoal-grilled on skewers 
Laban 
Tangy-tasting sour milk drink widely used in cooking as a substitute for milk 
Labenah 
Thick creamy cheese, often spiced and used as a dip 
Lahma Bi Ajeen 
Arabic pizza 
Loubia (fassulya) 
Green beans cooked in tomato sauce 
Ma'amul 
Date cookies shaped in a wooden mould called a tabi 
Makloubeh 
Meat or fish with rice, broad beans and cauliflower 
Mai 
Water 
Mantou 
Dumplings stuffed with minced lamb 
Markok 
Lamb and pumpkin stew 
Mehshi 
Means stuffed - aubergines, courgettes, vine leaves or cabbage may be stuffed with a mixture of minced meat, rice and onions 
Melokhiyyah 
Green, spinach-like vegetable 
Mezze (mezza, meze, mezzah) 
The Arabic word for appetiser [picture] 
Mish mish 
Apricots 
Mouhammara 
Mixture of ground nuts, olive oil, cumin and chillis, eaten with Arabic bread 
Moutabel 
Eggplant dip made with tahina, olive oil and lemon juice 
Mubassal 
Onion pancakes 
Muhalabiyyah 
Silky textured semolina pudding served cold 
Musakhan 
Chicken casserole with sumac 
Mutabak 
Sweet or savoury pastry turnovers usually stuffed with cheese, banana or meat 
Najil 
Saddle-back grouper 
Rocca 
Aromatic salad green with a peppery mustard flavour, used in salads or mixed with hot yoghurt 
Sambusek 
Triangular pies filled with meat, cheese or spinach 
Sayyadiya 
Delicately-spiced fish dish served on a bed of rice 
Seleek 
Lamb and rice dish where the rice is cooked in milk rather than the juice of the meat 
Shai (chai) 
Tea 
Shaour 
Red Sea fish from the emperor family 
Shawerma 
A cone of pressed lamb, chicken or beef roasted on a vertical spit where the meat is shaved off from the outside as the spit keeps turning. Saudi Arabia's most popular sandwich is Arabic bread filled with shawerma meat, salad, hot sauce and tahina 
Sheesha (hubbly bubbly) 
Pipe for smoking tobacco leaves or dried fruit through a water filter 
Shish Taouk 
Skewered chicken pieces cooked over charcoal 
Shourba 
Soup 
Snober 
Pine nuts 
Sukkar 
Sugar 
Sumac 
Ground powder from the cashew family, used as a seasoning 
Tabbouleh 
Salad of burghul, tomato, mint and parsley 
Taklia 
Spice consisting of ground coriander and garlic 
Tahina 
An oily paste made from ground sesame seeds, used in hommus, moutabel and baba ghanoush 
Tamr 
Dates 
Taratour 
A thick mayonnaise of puréed pine nuts, garlic and lemon, used as a sauce or dip 
Um Ali 
'Ali's mother' is a pastry pudding with raisins and coconut steeped in milk 
Warak Enab (warak dawali) 
Stuffed vine leaves 
Yansoon 
Hot spiced tea, used for medicinal purposes 
Zatoon 
Olives 
Zattar 
Blend of spices including thyme, marjoram, sumac and salt