A Peking duck soup.

Ahh the duck.......

With some friends due for dinner on a Tuesday evening and plans for the meal yet to be made, on the Monday afternoon I had to take action. I wanted a dish that was warming, yet fresh, light, yet filling.

A Peking duck soup with dumplings! - Here’s the story...

I went to the Adelaide Central Markets to get a Peking duck, as I have done once before. I got a park on Gouger St. right in front of Quo Chi Oriental Supermarket at the Chinese gates to the market. Looking-looking and no ducks, I went through to Kim Wang Asian Supermarket frozen uncooked ducks - shit. I walk back to the car thinking 'where did I buy this duck before?' Should I rethink dinner? Just about to get back in the car and rethink dinner, and right in front of where I parked was the BBQ City Restaurant, Peking duck headquarters really!- all hanging in the window . $22 one duck and some sauce ‘Thank you come again’.....

Monday evening:
Remove meat and refrigerate. Make stock with some lemongrass, ginger, onion, carrot, and celery with the stripped carcass of the bird, I recommend frying the ingredients in the duck fat and skin before adding hot water to the pot. Cover with hot water and boil for several hours. ... Let the stock cool and place in fridge to clarify or separate - remove hardened duck fat from the top of stock. That was Monday evening.

Tuesday morning:
I was walking from the work car park near the railway line, adjacent to the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel to the rear gate entrance. You have to walk down this street with two old houses at the end - I am hearing this strange bird noise and wonder that is not a normal bird call for the morning in a tree? I look up to where the noise is coming from and there is a very nice looking duck, speckled feathers with a bright neck ring and long slender neck. It looked a very particular breed. This duck was standing way up on top of the chimney of the house to the right of the street - and it was looking at me making an interesting noise combined with a two step movement side to side!! - Talk about weird.

Should I rethink dinner?

Tuesday evening:
Add some chicken stock to the now strained (through cloth) duck stock - boil. Prepare fresh sliced ingredients like bok-choy or Chinese broc, chilli, enoki, maybe some noodles. - I like making a Japanese omelette with egg water and caster sugar cook and slice thinly to resemble noodle - slurperific!! Place some frozen dumplings in boiling stock - add some tamarind paste, 1 big tspn to get some tart into the stock. Boil until dumplings float which is around 5 mins. Place sliced ingredients into warmed bowls - duck meat (pre-heated) veg, enoki, noodles and chilli. Spoon out the stock evenly and serve with chilli oil and sweet vinegar on top of broth.....

Rich and warm Chinese, yet more like Ramen.

Should I rethink dinner? Definitely not - It was rich – In retrospect I would dilute by halving the amount of duck stock used and freeze the rest - your bowels with thank you!!!

Giles

Ps. One of my friends had a flu vac shot that day and combined with some very rich broth got the shits and was facing the toilet door all night long – all night long.. All night!! Not very complementary of my own cooking but no one else felt ill, maybe bird flu?