Duck with Eight Jewel Rice





duck with eight-jewel rice

One of my favourite dinner-party tricks used to be
a magnificent eight-jewel duck. It meant boning
a whole duck, stuffing it with sticky rice and all
sorts of goodies, roasting it until the skin was
crisp and glossy, then carving it at the table,
slicing right across the duck so that each slice showed
the lacquered skin and tender meat wrapped around the
'jewels' inside. Applause all round.
Then the other day, I wondered if I could recreate a little of
the fun of eight-jewel duck without all the boning, stuffing
and associated kerfuffle. So I cooked up some rice, and tossed
it in a wok with lots of colourful 'jewels' - red capsicum,
Chinese lap cheong sausage, dried mushrooms, dried
shrimps, dried cranberries, water chestnuts, almonds and
spring onion. Then I brushed hoisin sauce over some duck
breast fillets, roasted them and served them with the rice.
Guess what? Applause all round.

Serves 4

6 dried shiitake mushrooms*
2 tbs Chinese dried shrimp*
1/3 cup (50g) dried cranberries
4 duck breast fillets, skin scored
2 tbs hoisin sauce
2 tbs sunflower oil
2 lap cheong sausages*, sliced on an angle
1 red capsicum, chopped
227g can water chestnuts*, chopped
2 tbs toasted almonds or hazelnuts
2 tbs Chinese rice wine (shaohsing)*
1/4 cup (60mll soy sauce)
1 tsp caster sugar
3 spring onions, green stems thinly sliced
1 cup (200g) Jasmine rice,
cooked, cooled

Soak mushrooms, shrimp and cranberries
in 200ml boiling water for 30 minutes.
Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Discard
mushroom stems and finely slice the caps.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C. 

Heat a non-stick frypan over medium-high heat.
Cook duck skin-side down for 5-6 minutes
until skin is golden and fat renders. Turn
and cook for 1 minute. Smear skin with
hoisin and transfer duck, skin-side up, to a
tray. Bake for 5 minutes for medium-rare.
Cover with foil and rest for 5 minutes.

Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat.
Add sausage and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add
capsicum and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add
chestnuts, almonds, mushrooms, shrimp,
and cranberries. Stir-fry until combined.
Add wine, soy, sugar, '/2 tsp salt and most
of the spring onion, stir-fry for 2 minutes.
Stir in rice. Heat through for 1 -2 minutes,
adding reserved liquid if needed.

Slice the duck and serve on the rice,
topped with remaining spring onion.

* Available from Asian food stores

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