Oritang

Duck blanched and then skimmed twice, because getting the fat out is the whole problem with the bird.

Duck. Not vegetarian — contains duck.

Ingredients

• 1 duck, about 2 kg, jointed
• 2.5 litres water
• 300 g Korean radish, in chunks
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 head garlic, halved
• 1 piece ginger, 5 cm, sliced
• 4 spring onions
• 2 tablespoons doenjang
• 1 tablespoon gochugaru
• 3 tablespoons ground perilla seeds
• 200 g chard or cabbage leaves, blanched
• a handful of perilla leaves
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. THE DUCK IS BLANCHED AND THE FAT SKIMMED TWICE, and that is the entire difficulty of cooking duck in a soup. A two-kilo bird will render out a mugful of fat; left in, the broth is greasy in the mouth, coats the spoon and tastes of nothing but duck fat. So: ten minutes at a boil and that water thrown away, then skimmed again through the simmer, and ideally chilled so the cap can be lifted off whole.
2. AND THE SKIN COMES OFF THE JOINTS THAT HAVE MOST OF IT. The breast skin especially. It is not squeamishness -- duck skin in a long simmer does not crisp or render away, it goes soft and slippery and nobody eats it.
3. CHILLED OVERNIGHT IS BEST, which makes this a two-day soup if you want it right. The fat sets as a solid white cap and lifts off in one piece, which no amount of skimming a hot pot achieves.
4. GROUND PERILLA SEED GOES IN NEAR THE END, as on the gamjatang page here -- two or three tablespoons for thickness and a nutty note, added late because long boiling turns it bitter. It is not sesame and sesame will not do.
5. AND THE BIRD IS COOKED UNTIL THE MEAT PULLS OFF, an hour and a half at a bare simmer. Duck is tougher than chicken and a bird taken off at forty minutes is chewy on the leg.
6. Duck jointed, and the skin pulled off the breast and any joint carrying a thick layer. Excess fat at the cavity cut away.
7. Covered with cold water, brought to the boil, and boiled 10 MINUTES. The WATER THROWN AWAY, the joints rinsed and the pot scrubbed.
8. Returned with the 2.5 litres of water, the onion, garlic, ginger and spring onions. Brought to a simmer and SKIMMED as foam and fat rise.
9. Simmered gently 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES, skimmed every 20 minutes.
10. The duck lifted out. If there is time, the broth CHILLED so the fat sets and can be lifted off whole; otherwise skimmed hard with a ladle.
11. The broth strained, the aromatics discarded, and the meat pulled off the bones in large pieces.
12. The broth returned to the pot with the doenjang pressed through a sieve, the gochugaru and the radish. Simmered 20 minutes.
13. The duck meat and blanched chard returned, 5 minutes.
14. The ground perilla seed stirred in and cooked 5 MINUTES. Tasted and salted.
15. The perilla leaves thrown on off the heat, and served with steamed rice as on its own page.

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 South Korea · All recipes