Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Dry Salted Duck, Sausage and Bacon on Rice

I was with my friend, Wing Lau, at the Lotus Garden restaurant the other day and mentioned that I had some dry salted duck I'd purchased in Chinatown, something he'd recommended I try. I asked him how best to cook it. He called the proprietors daughter over to the table and asked her. She recommended using a clay pot, or if I didn't have that a rice cooker. Put the rice in the pot, get it boiling, then add some vegetables, like bok choy, then layer it with duck, some Chinese sausage and some bacon. The juices of the duck, sausage and bacon would seep into the rice making it very flavorful. So Sunday I decided to do it. First, the dry salted duck. It is a whole duck flattened and dried.
It says refrigeration is not necessary, but it was in a freezer when I bought it and I kept it in the freezer until I thawed it out to use it.
The duck outside of the package.
I cut it into large pieces to make it easier to place in the pot with the rice.
I cut up three large scallions (I wish I'd done three or four times that many) and some Polish sausage. They recommended Chinese sausage, but I've tried it and don't really like it. It has a sweet taste that isn't appealing to me.
They also recommended Chinese bacon, which apparently has less fat, but I didn't have access to a Chinese market, so I used regular smoked bacon purchased from the meat counter at Albertson's. I microwaved it for about three minutes to partially cook it. I used about six slices.
 
I used 1 1/4 cups of sticky rice which I got into the pot and boiling. Then I added the duck pieces, the scallions, the sausage and the bacon and closed the lid.
I cooked it about 25 minutes, about five minutes longer than regular rice called for. Then I let it sit for five minutes so that the water and juices could get soaked up into the rice.
I mixed it up before serving.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I dished out some rice and made sure I got some bacon, sausage and a drumstick from the duck.
I cut off bite sized bits of duck and really enjoyed it, going back for seconds. I'm not a major fan of the dried and salted duck. It is very salty and is not as moist and nice tasting as regular duck. But the rice was excellent, mixed with the onion, bacon and sausage. I particularly thought the sausage was good in it. It is something I would do again. I think it would be really good with regular duck.

5 comments:

  1. Ooooh, that looks so good! I've never tried dry salted duck!

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  2. You are definitely NOT suppose to use smoked bacon, NOT SUPPOSE TO USE Regular Sausage, AND YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO USE A CLAY POT.

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  3. Sorry. That's disgusting, that's the equivalent to microwave food. AND the duck you bought is disgusting. Your attempts failed before you even began. You need to buy fresh preserved meat products from MOW Lee Co in San Francisco's Chinatown. They taste great. The duck is the best i've ever tried. and when cooked its nice and tender. I think they will ship it to where you are. Please use a clay pot. It cooks significantly differently. It is suppose to come out something like this.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qQwhyI0Fct4/TMO9BgjJtMI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/Rwv2ltl7igo/s1600/claypot-rice-chinatown-hawker-centre.jpg

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  4. Jasmine, I find that I have done a lot of things in my life that I was not supposed to do - some turned out alright and some did not. This one turned out alright. We were just in San Francisco's Chinatown and I did see some very nice dry salted duck, I'm not sure if it was MOW Lee Co. or not. It appears that you may be a salesperson and I don't have a clay pot. Can you get me a good deal on one, and maybe on some of your good dry salted duck?

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