Many of you do not know that I'm a Hakka or Khek, that's coz I did not tell many about it. Not too proud as I do not know how to speak the language nor know much about our origins (perhaps its time I do some reading about it). The only one dish that I ever tried to make was the Hakka Abacus Seeds 客家算盘子 back in 2011, this was Dad's favourite Hakka food and I remember I start eating this when my grandma cooked this for me when I was very young. My attempt to cook this dish was a success though it still does not taste as good as Mum's, and since then I have never tried to do it any more coz it is hard work, at least for me.
I bought this Hakka Cookbook and there are many delicious, mouthing watering, salivating, not doubt sinful food. Took me quite a while to gather much courage to decide to try my hands on one of the dish. It was a success though the dish causes some frowns when I set it on the table but we enjoyed it.
So how does this dish taste like? I wouldn't say its an acquired taste dish but since there are preserved red beancurd in it some of you may not like it though you probably wouldn't even taste much of it. The duck meat is juice, soft and tender, in my case its oily too. I can't taste the ginger, perhaps I put too little of it, but its ok since I am not a great ginger fan.
* half (1.5kg) a duck
* 250g young ginger (cut into triangular pieces)
* 2 pieces preserved red beancurd
* 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
* 800ml water
Seasoning
* 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
* 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
* 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
* 1 teaspoon sugar
Method
1. Cut the duck into pieces, rinse and blanch in boiling water, dish out, drain well
2. Heat up 1 tablespoon oil in the preheated wok to saute ginger, preserved red beancurd and garlic until fragrant.
3. Add in duck pieces and seasoning, stirring constantly until the color of duck meat has changes/ Pour in water, bring to boil. Cover the wok, lower the heat and simmer for approximately 40-45 mins until the duck pieces are tender and the flavour has been absorbed, or the gravy has become syrupy or thicken.
4. Dish out and serve while hot.
Notes
1. I have never cook duck before other then the Salted Veggie with Duck soup, therefore I am not going to try to do it with half a duck in a new recipe so I used 2 duck thighs instead. Besides changing that, I used only 500ml of water and about 100g of young ginger, I followed the recipe for the rest of the ingredients/seasoning.
2. Look at the photo above, not a pretty sight I know. I left the duck simmering in the pan for 10 mins and forgot to stir them. The result is a darken skin, luckily its not burnt. So please STIR OFTEN.
3. As you can see from the photo again, there are more oil then sauce. So remember to remove most of the duck fats before you put the duck meat to cook.
4. Instruction was to cut the young ginger into "triangular pieces" which I have no idea what it means so I simply just sliced them into bigger pieces.
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| With water just added in |
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| After 45 min of simmering |
Why don't you give this dish a try, even though you may not be a Hakka and share with me your views about it.
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the duck looks GREAT!!! whet my appetite for the day!!
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