Braised Duck

Duck legs with their fat rendered out and poured away, then braised in wine and ginger.

Duck. Not vegetarian — contains duck.

Ingredients

• 4 duck legs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• a large thumb of ginger, sliced thickly
• 4 spring onions, halved
• 200 ml Shaoxing wine
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 400 ml hot water

Method

1. Score the skin of each leg in a few places without cutting into the meat, and rub the salt in.
2. Lay the legs skin-side down in a cold dry pan and put it on a low heat. No oil: there is a great deal of fat under that skin and the first job is to get it out.
3. Leave them 12 to 15 minutes, pouring the fat off into a jar two or three times as it collects. The skin should end up thin and brown. A duck braised without this step sits in its own grease.
4. Turn the legs over, add the ginger and spring onions, and let them colour for 2 minutes.
5. Pour in the wine and let it boil hard for a minute — it should smell of wine rather than alcohol before anything else goes in.
6. Add both soy sauces, the sugar and the hot water, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for an hour.
7. Turn the legs, uncover, and give it another 15 minutes to reduce. The sauce should be loose, not a glaze: duck is rich enough without one.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes