Sliced duck with mushrooms and leeks over crispy noodles

4 duck breast fillets
2 leeks
1/2 lb mushrooms (we used chestnut mushrooms)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2" piece of fresh ginger, minced
Thin Chinese egg noodles

Put 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a wok, and heat it until it's nearly smoking. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir fry for about one minute. Add the mushrooms and stir fry until soft. Add the leeks and continue to stir fry until they're wilted and soft. Store the result in a convenient bowl.

Score the skin of the duck breasts with a sharp knife, taking care not to cut the meat underneath, but cutting all the way through the skin. Score the entire breast, with lines about 1/2" apart. Salt and pepper the duck, using a bit more salt than you think, and rub the result into the skin. Heat a skillet until it's very hot (normally we would use an iron skillet, but we used an All Clad instead because we needed the extra space, and it worked fine - we added a drizzle of vegetable oil to the All Clad, which we wouldn't have done in the iron skillet). Place the duck skin side down, and fry for about 12 minutes. All of the fat should render out from under the skin, and the skin should be extremely crispy. Turn and fry for another 6 minutes, then remove and let stand for about 5 minutes.

Prepare the Chinese egg noodles however the package directs. Usually this involves boiling them for about 3-5 minutes. It's easiest to separate them with chopsticks after putting them in the water, and always rinse them thoroughly with cold water when they're done to prevent them from cooking any further in their own heat and becoming mushy.

To make the crispy noodles: Put 4 tbsp oil in the wok and heat it until it's nearly smoking. Add the noodles, and spread them out into a disk about 1" thick. If you have more noodles than will fit, do them in batches - if the noodles are too thick in the wok, they don't come out right. Fry them for 3 minutes, then flip the pancake-esque result and fry them for another 3 minutes on the other side. The resulting crispy noodle disc should slide easily out of the wok (unlike the flipping part, which is always a bit tricky).

Serve a portion of crispy noodle covered in leeks and mushrooms, with sliced duck breast arranged in a line on top. Hoi sin sauce goes nicely with the duck, but I just slather mine with sriracha.