The Original Roasted Duck Rice Recipe

Duck rice is a Southeast Asian meat dish usually consumed by the Chinese diaspora in Maritime Southeast Asia, made of either braised or roasted duck and plain white rice. The braised duck is usually cooked with yam and shrimps; it can be served simply with plain white rice and a thick dark sauce; side dishes of braised hard-boiled eggs, preserved salted vegetables, or hard beancurd may be added. In addition, Teochew boneless duck rice is similar, but a more refined dish; due to the slightly tougher texture of duck, the duck is artfully deboned and sliced thinly for the convenience and ease of the diner, allowing the sauces to seep into the meat, making it a more pleasant experience on the whole; Hainanese chicken rice and other similar dishes have followed this style due to the popularity.

Method:

Prep:15min › Cook:1hr10min › Extra time:5hr resting › Ready in:6hr25min 

Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Trim off the visible duck fat, then prick the skin all over, piercing through the fat but not through the meat. Plunge the duck into the boiling water and blanch for 1 minute. Drain and dry on kitchen paper.

Stir together the hoisin sauce, five-spice powder, root ginger, spring onions, sherry, and yellow bean sauce, and spread on the underside of the duck. Place it, skin side up, on a rack set over a roasting tin.

Put the honey, soy sauce, and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour this mixture over the duck, collecting the juices in the tin. Pour the mixture back over the duck twice more, then leave the duck, on the rack, in a cool, draughty place for about 5 hours. Alternatively, leave it in front of a fan, or in a fan oven with just the fan turned on and no heat, for 2 hours. The skin of the duck should dry out and look a bit like baking parchment. Reserve the honey and soy mixture.

Preheat the oven to 200 C / Gas 6. Pour about 300ml of water into the roasting tin.

Roast until the skin is very crisp and brown, about 1 hour.

Pour the reserved honey and soy mixture into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes to make a sauce to serve with the roast duck.

Ingredients:
Serves: 4
1 (2kg) whole duck
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons five-spice powder
1 tablespoon grated root ginger
2 spring onions, chopped
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons yellow bean sauce
3 tablespoons honey
3 ta dark soy sauce

300ml water

This dish can commonly be found in food centers all around Singapore.

In Thailand, this dish is called Khao na ped (ข้าวหน้าเป็ด; lit: "rice topped with duck"), and is sold by street vendors or in restaurants inside shopping malls. A Bangkok neighborhood that specializes in its duck rice is Bangrak on Charoen Krung road. In addition, it has also been adapted to other dishes by mixing roasted red pork and Chinese sausage with special gravy, a dish called Khao che po (ข้าวเฉโป) or Khao sia po (ข้าวเสียโป), meaning "gamble away rice". It is considered traditional Teochew cuisine.

Kamikoto Sharpest Knives on Earth

To begin with, I am not a Kamikoto representative, this blog post is to share my experience and review on my recent Kamikoto set purchase. When I first started cooking I quickly figured out that having a sharp knife was important to success in the kitchen. The first cooking class I attended showed me which knives work best for which purposes, and what to look for. Fast forward to last year, when I was taking online courses, and learned even more about kitchen tools. I’ve been pretty obsessed with cutlery since then, and I even have a Santoku tattooed on my arm! Hence, why I am very excited to share my review on this Senshi Kamikoto knife set, with you. I bought my Kamikoto Set on Amazon, you may find further Kamikoto reviews here.

Kamikoto Knife Set: Chef’s Knife

Butternut squash: I used this to peel, slice in half and chop the squash. For the larger cuts, it takes a second to get used to the one-sided edge, because it wants to curve into what it’s cutting. If you know this going into it, it’ll be easier to cut straighter lines. Other than that, the blade is supremely sharp and cuts through the hard squash, effortlessly. For the chopping, there are no issues, and the one-sided edge helps to push the cut pieces away from the blade as you go. The large blade was great for cutting thin slices and Julienne cuts of the squash, as if it were soft!

Butter lettuce: On the other side of the spectrum, soft and airy lettuce can sometimes be smashed while being chopped or cut off of the whole head. With a couple of subtle back and forth motions, the Chef’s knife sliced through the fragile lettuce without smushing it or super visibly oxidizing the edges, which can happen with duller knives.

Rice paper: Now, this one may seem odd, but if you have ever tried making rice paper bacon, you know that chopping uncooked rice paper is HARD! If you don’t have a good knife, you end up cracking the paper into unusable pieces. It can be very frustrating! For this test I ran 1-cm of the tip across the rice paper, then cut down, rolling the blade over the score and it was beautiful. The length of this knife really helps to get a full strip out of the paper.

Avocado: Lastly, I wanted to see if this large blade was versatile enough to get the thinnest slices out of something soft. As you can see from the photo, the slices are oh-so-thin, consistent and this avocado was super buttery. All it took was a few up and down motions and it was effortless. Avocado roses for everyone!

Kamikoto Knife Set: Utility Knife

Carrot: I used this smaller knife to peel, and do an assortment of cuts on a single carrot. Because the blade is nimble, it was not intimidating to use for more delicate or precise work. On the other end, even though the blade is small, it still cut through the dense carrot easily. I really enjoyed cutting the 1/8-inch Julienne sticks with this blade, perfectly.

Tomato: I feel like we’ve all seen the infomercials with a weird knife or tool cutting through tomatoes in one fell swoop. That’s not realistic, or necessary. Cutting tomatoes should require a motion that goes both down and across, to get a uniform slice. The utility knife nailed it, and got thin slices, even from a very soft tomato.

Lemon: I found that I really liked using this blade on the left side of the lemon to slice off thin pieces for zest/drinks. It was super sharp, really easy to work with on smaller items and cuts like this. Then I went for the hyper-thin slices, which sometimes can get messy with dull blades (again with the smushing!). But, in this instance, they were stunning.

Green onion: I love topping Asian-style dishes with green onions! So, I thought it appropriate to try out some delicate angled cuts on one for garnish. The utility knife cut uniformly and completely through, which can sometimes be hard for small, fibrous veggies.

Kamikoto Knife Set: Conclusion

A classical Kamikoto knife set

If you are looking to seriously invest in knives that will possibly outlive you, this knife set is a great choice. Especially, with their lifetime warranty! The price may be a little off-putting, at first, but they have options for everyone. After looking at their site, I found that you can get a great deal on a knife that is made-to-order! The Santoku from Kamikoto can be ordered ahead of time for a fraction of the price, at even less than some competitors of lower quality.

Most importantly, you can really feel the quality of the blades, and the sharpness is pretty incredible. I’m very excited to have these knives in my kitchen, and know that I will be using them again and again. Though, I certainly won’t be lending them out, anytime soon.

The Perfect Asian Spicy Prawn Dish

If you love Asian food, you’ll go mad over these Chilli Garlic Prawns! The sticky sauce is spicy, sweet and garlicky and I think you will be surprised how few ingredients it requires. And when you taste it you will be amazed what great depth of flavour it has! I often wonder who doesn't like spicy prawns unless alergic to it.

This takes 15 minutes to get on the table. Cross my heart. So start cooking the rice before you start

these prawns (shrimp)!

When I go to a restaurant and try a dish I like, I usually have a fair chance of getting pretty close replicating the dish at home. Even if I can’t make something straight off the top of my head, I’ll know where to look to find a recipe to use as a base, or a Chef that makes something similar.

I promise I’m not trying to blow my own horn here (and I can’t do desserts!!), I’m just explaining how this recipe evolved. And it came to be after I had a Stir Fried Prawns (Shrimp) in Chilli Jam at a Thai Restaurant.

I was going to try to replicate it using a homemade Chilli Jam recipe, but then I got lazy. Instead, I tried to achieve the same flavours using a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a dash of this and a splash of that. And what do you know? It came out darn delicious. Really, really tasty and pretty close to making this with a homemade Chilli Jam, but just a whole lot easier and faster.I promise I’m not exaggerating when I say that this really does taste like Spicy Stir Fries you get from modern Asian restaurants. I don’t claim this to be authentic Asian because it probably isn’t an authentic Asian stir fry but every ingredient in the sauce is certainly used in many Asian dishes!

I served this with rice and steamed baby buk choy. Here is my real lazy but very effective way of steaming Asian greens. I know it is not environmentally friendly and one of my friends totally “had a go” at me about this, but I can’t help it, it’s ingrained in my DNA because it’s how my grandmother used to steam Asian greens!

All you do is rinse the vegetables under the tap, shake excess water off (but don’t dry), wrap in cling wrap then microwave for 1 1/2 minutes (or so). That’s it!

You can do this with most Asian greens – Chinese broccoli (gai lan), choi sum etc. And if you want a really great sauce to serve on steamed Asian Greens, try my Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Saucewhich really does taste like what you get at Chinese Restaurants and Yum Cha (it’s made with more than just Oyster Sauce!). I love Lee Kum Kee Oyster sauce which fits perfectly.



Putting rice aside, and assuming you use raw peeled prawns / shrimp rather than peeling your own, my Chilli Garlic Prawns really is a 15 minute dinner. Here is how it goes down:

Finely chop garlic and ginger (green onions/shallots and fresh red chilli is optional garnish);

• Cook prawns (3 minutes tops);
• Make sauce (4 minutes);
• Steam greens (1 1/2 minutes); and
• Serve and look like a hero!

PS I know that I am usually a prawn snob and I really urge you to peel your own prawns but for a quick meal like this, pre-peeled is the way to go. Fresh, if possible. Frozen prawns are just not the same.

ASIAN CHILI GARLIC PRAWNS (SHRIMP)

Juicy prawns / shrimp in a sweet sticky, spicy, garlicky sauce. A quick dinner that tastes like a homemade Chilli Jam stir fry you get at modern Thai restaurants!
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Asian
Serves: 2-3

INGREDIENTS

10oz / 300g prawns / shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1 tbsp vegetable oil (or canola)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp ginger, grated or finely chopped (can be omitted)
1 - 2 tsp chilli flakes* (Note 1)
½ cup water
2 tbsp Sriracha (Note 2)
1½ tsp soy sauce, light or all purpose
2 tbsp brown sugar (or sub with white sugar)
Garnish (optional)
Sesame seeds
Finely chopped shallots/scallions
Finely chopped red chilies

INSTRUCTIONS

Coat prawns in vegetable oil. Heat well seasoned skillet or non stick pan over high heat. Cook prawns for 2 minutes, or until light golden and just cooked. (Note 3) Transfer onto a plate.

Remove skillet from stove to cool down slightly, and decrease stove to medium.

Add sesame oil into skillet, return to stove. When heated, add garlic, ginger and chilli flakes. Cook until garlic is fragrant and starting to turn golden.

Add water, then remaining ingredients. Stir, increase heat to medium high, and let it simmer for 3 minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken to a syrup consistency.

Return prawns into skillet and toss to coat in sauce and reheat, and cook until the sauce thickens a bit more.

Garnish with sesame seeds, fresh chilli and shallots if desired. Serve with rice and steamed baby Buk Choy (Note 4)

NOTES

Sriracha by Huy Fong

* Adjust spiciness to taste with chilli flakes not Sriracha because the sauce needs the vinegar in the Sriracha.

1. Also known as Red Pepper Flakes. You could also use a jar of minced chilli or chilli paste but do not try to saute it with the garlic because it will spit everywhere! Stir it in when you add the water. Even this Masterfoods Chilli Paste from Woolworths in Australia is fine.

2. Sriracha is an Asian chilli sauce that is made with more than just chilli. It is now common in most supermarkets in Australia, US, Canada and UK. Hereis the one I use from Woolworths.

You can substitute with another hot sauce, even Frank's!

3. How to tell if prawns are cooked: Raw prawns hang straight by the trail, perfectly cooked prawns form a "C" and overcooked prawns will curl into an "O". Overcooked prawns have a rubbery texture and are not nice - so don't do it!

4. This is how I steam baby Buk Choy: Rinse under tap, shake off excess water, wrap with cling wrap and microwave for 1½ minutes on high. Remove cling wrap immediately (careful of steam) and serve!

5. Nutrition per serving, assuming 2 (generous) servings. Prawns and sauce only.