Almond Pork Lung Soup 杏汁豬肺湯

 Crispy 8 Treasure Duck 八寶鴨- A Chinese Imperial Dish from the Qing Dynasty

Preparation Time: 2 days

Ingredients:

1 Whole Rice-fed or Grain-fed Muscovy duck (Deboned)

Stuffing:

1.5 cup White Rice

1/2 cup Barley

(two cups of rice or Barley of your choice; mixing the two gives a better texture and binding agent)

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp of minced ginger

1/2 cup Hydrated shitake mushrooms, diced (about 2-3 large dried mushrooms of your choice)

1/2 cup fresh shrimp, diced

1/2 cup cooked or snack chestnuts break into halves

1/2 cup lotus seeds, hydrated and deveined

1/4 cup Chinese Red dates or any sweet dates

1/2 cup Chinese ham, diced (can substitute with panchette or parma ham)

1/2 cup Chinese sausage, diced (can substitute with nonspicy chorizo or more Chinese ham)

1-2 salted egg yolk (halved)optional if you don't like the cholesteryl or texture

Other ingredients to be considered: Dried shrimp, Chinese sausage, dried scallops, abalone, white Lily bulb, and other fragrant dried mushrooms. It is anything your family enjoys. Make your own recipes based on your family heritage.

Marinade for the Duck:

2 tbsp of Dark soy

1 tbsp of Light soy

1 tbsp of Chinese wine

1 tsp of 5 spices powder

Marinade for the Stuffing:

2 tbsp of soy sauce

1 tbsp of sugar

1 tsp of Chinese wine

Roasting Ingredients:

2 bundles of spring onion

1 bulb of garlic

2 large carrots

Duck Stock:

1 whole duck bone

4 slices of ginger

1 bundle of spring onion cut into 4s

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp of salt to taste

Garnish for the Dish:

1 lb of Bak Choi, Spinach, Choi Sum or broccoli

1 tbsp of Minced Garlic

Watch my video for the full story of the 8 treasure duck.

Day Before Dinner

1. Prepare the stuffing:

Wash and clean all ingredients with water

Add rice, Barley, mushrooms, lotus seeds, and dates in a large bowl. Submerge them in cold water(3-4 cups) fully covered, and add sausage and ham on top. Leave it in the fridge for 24 hours.

I like to put all the dry ingredients together in water so that all the umami can soak into the rice and barley, adding additional layers of flavor.

2. Debone the Duck

Instruction:

This technique is quite helpful for all poultry. It leaves the duck deboned except for the wing and drumsticks. Traditionally, you keep the duck head intact, but it's okay not to have it on your dish in the modern world. This gives an impressive presentation of the duck and makes it easy to cut open and serve. The stuffing also stays moist and soaks up all the juice from the duck.

1. First, remove the head of the duck. Remove duck feet and wing tips with poultry scissors.

2. Start from the butt area, duck breast facing up, separate the bone from the butt using poultry scissors or a small sharp knife, slowly cut away the bone, and remove excess fat in that area, leaving the tail end intact. Be careful not to puncture the skin.

3. using your fingers, slowly peel away the bone cavity from the duck itself.

4. Without breaking the skin, cut with the scissors against the backbone and neck of the duck.

5. When you hit the thigh bone, cut between the joint and release the thigh bone from the bone cavity.

6. At the halfway point, the bone cavity should be halfway out, and you can almost turn the duck inside out.

7. Continue to slide your fingers between the bone and the skin to separate the bone from the duck itself. Cut with scissors if necessary.

8. Slowly pull the bone cavity out of the duck's body until you hit the wing bone.

9. Separate both wing bones with scissors.

10. The last bit is the neck, and like a glove, the whole bone structure will separate from the duck meat.

11. Remove both thigh bones, leaving the drumstick behind, and you have a deboned duck!

This process is like pulling the whole bone structure inside out of the duck. In HK, there are fresh Poultry shops selling fresh duck and chicken inside the wet markets. Sometimes, they can debone a chicken or duck for you, but ask them to do it using the 8 treasure duck method.

If this is too tricky for you, not deboning the duck will taste the same as eating a turkey at Thanksgiving, but it is such an excellent technique to conquer.

I have stuffed chicken and turkey with this method, and eating a whole chicken without bones with stuffing together is amazing. The infusion of the flavor of the stuffing with the duck meat and juice together is just another level of enjoyment.

Rub the duck skin and cavity with the duck marinade and let it sit for 30 minutes. Then, remove excess liquid from the duck skin with a paper towel. Place duck in the refrigerator uncovered overnight or up to 48 hours to develop a dry, paper-like skin. If you don't have the time, leave the duck in a windy area or with a fan on to remove any excess liquid from the duck skin for about 2 hours while preparing your stuffing and stock.

3. Duck Stock:

In a pot, add cold water, submerge all duck feet, neck, wing tips, and cavity, and let it come to a boil. Keep boiling for 10 minutes, drain the duck, and wash thoroughly.

In a pot with hot oil, add ginger and spring onion and sautee until fragrant, add bones back into the pot and add water to bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and boil for 2-3 hrs. Let cool and reserve for later use.

Day of the dinner

    1. Pre-Cook Stuffing:

Drain excess water and reserve it for later use. Remove all mushrooms, ham, and sausage and dice them into uniform cubes. Remove the pit of the Dates and dice. Split open lotus seeds and remove the green pit.

Add garlic and ginger in an oiled pan on medium heat and saute until fragrant. Add sausage, ham, and shrimp, and saute for 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients and saute for 3 minutes until fragrant. Add a cup of mushroom water if the stuffing seems dry. It should be moist but not wet, and turn off the heat.

Let it cool. The rice and Barley should remain firm; it will continue cooking inside the duck cavity.

    2. Stuffing the duck

Remove the duck from the refrigerator, and it should be dry paper-like to the touch. Fold the neck underneath the duck. Breast side up, add stuffing into the cavity of the duck. Only stuff it to about 2/3 full, leaving it not too hard to close. Do not overstuff, as the duck will shrink during cooking and may burst.

Using a wooden toothpick or a metal skewer, enclose the opening of the duck. You can cook excess stuffing in a rice cooker or over the stovetop on a slow simmer with an extra cup of duck or chicken stock and serve on the side. Just imagine how you would serve a Thanksgiving Turkey.

    3. Cooking the duck:

Preheat oven at 200C

In a baking dish or a roasting pan, cut carrots into large chunks and place in the bottom of the pan. Cut the Garlic top off and add to the pan. Add 3 bundles of spring onion and ginger and 2 cups of Mushroom water of duck stock. Place the duck on top of the carrots, but it should not touch the liquid. The carrot and water act as a baking rack with water to catch the fat without making the oven too smoky with duck fat splatter all over. It also adds moisture while cooking.

Place in the hot oven and bake for 20 minutes until the duck becomes slightly golden and oil starts to extract from the duck.

Reduce heat to 150C and cook for 1 hour until nice and tender.

If you use a Souvide oven, Set the oven at 200C with no steam and cook for 20 minutes. Then turn to 150C with 60% steam and cook for 1 hour. Using a Souvide oven makes the meat extra juicy and tender.

The duck should be golden brown with a lovely crispy skin on top.

  

 4. To plate the duck:

While the duck is baking, blanch the leafy greens or broccoli in the duck stock with some garlic. Place the leafy green on the serving platter as garnish.

Add 1 tbsp of cornstarch into 1/2 cup of mushroom water and combine with the sauce from the vegetable to form the gravy. Season with soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste, and serve with the duck on the side.

Remove the duck from the roasting pan and rest for 5 minutes. Remove metal skewers. Place on the serving dish with Leafy Greens, Confit carrots, and garlic. Reserve duck fat for other side dishes like fried potatoes or green beans. Yum!

Slice the duck, table side, and pour gravy on top of the exposed stuffing. Serve hot and enjoy with your family and friends.