Mock Peking Duck - Gluten Free Vegan Recipe

I virtually met a bunch of lovely ladies on a closed group on Facebook recently, a nice place to visit to discuss food ideas as I find so many internet groups relating to one’s dietary choices sadly are subjected to cyber bullying and bashers (both ways!). This is where I was first introduced to the idea of using jackfruit in vegan dishes, one of the ladies was raving about it and had made “pulled pork” and another jackfruit “chicken”. I was intrigued.

I began to do a little reading on the jackfruit as I had never heard of it before, apparently it holds many vitamins and minerals, and offers numerous health benefits. The fruit’s isoflavones, antioxidants, and phytonutrients mean that jackfruit has cancer-fighting properties. It is also known to help cure ulcers and indigestion. The jackfruit for these type of recipes is the young green, canned in brine, I found it in a cut-price grocery store here in Ontario, I believe it can be found in Asian and Afro-Caribbean type stores in the UK and US or failing that on good old Amazon.

First of all I tried out a recipe I found by another blogger for “pulled pork”, never having eaten the real thing I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised. The fruit took on the wonderful flavours of this recipe and the texture for a fruit was quite unique, very like shredded meat. Later, I was talking to my daughter about this and showed her the pictures of what I’d made and she came up with the lovely idea of creating duck style jackfruit in hoisin sauce with pancakes – something I used to enjoy in the UK pre-vegetarian days. I went on a trawl of the net for recipes for the jackfruit but found little “duck style”, so I pulled a couple of recipe ideas together and created this. The home-made hoisin sauce really makes this dish, and the use of freshly minced ginger I feel is absolutely essential to its deliciousness.

Gluten free vegan recipe

For the Jackfruit

I placed the following ingredients into my slow cooker

• 1 565g can of young green jackfruit in brine (thoroughly rinsed and drained)
• A generous chunk of ginger, minced (yield about 2 TBS)
• ½ a white onion finely chopped
• 1 whole fresh lime juiced
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 2 TBS of braggs soy sauce (or coconut sauce/soy alternative)
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• tsp of Himalayan pink salt
• 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• Milled black pepper
• Enough filtered water to just cover the Jackfruit

I cooked this on high for 3 hours and then turned off the slow cooker and left it to stand overnight.

The following day I strained off the excess liquid, pressing gently with a fork so that the jackfruit broke up, and preheated the oven to 350º F (approx 177º C)

I brushed a glass square baking dish with sesame oil and spread the jackfruit out in this and baked it for 30 mins.

For the Hoisin Sauce

• 4 TBS of Braggs soy sauce (or coconut soy alternative)
• 2 TBS good quality peanut butter
• 1 TBS of molasses
• 2 tsp seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 finely minced garlic clove
• 2 tsp sesame seed oil
• 1-2 tsp Sriracha (Chili Sauce)
• 1/8 tsp black pepper

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. I used Vietnamese rice paper for the wraps. I added fine strips of spring (green) onions and cucumbers to the wrap with the Jackfruit with a spoonful of the Hoisin sauce. My wrapping skills need a little practice. But who cares when it tastes so delicious!