Sour Plum Duck (酸梅鸭) Recipe and Chinese New Year 2013

Hello all!

First of all, I'd just like to wish everyone a very Happy Chinese New Year! In other words, Gong Xi Fa Chai! 

Chinese New Year is seriously my favourite festive season of all. Just because most of my best memories growing up were spending time with my relatives in my Mum's tiny hometown of Tawau over this holiday. It was the best when my late Grandmother was alive. The entire family would be having a ball together all day, everyday. There are many Chinese traditions that are involved, which makes it quite special and memorable. 

Everything from wearing a new+red shirt on the first day of CNY, to playing with fireworks and playful gambling sessions, watching the Lion Dance, etc etc. And not to mention... THE FOOOOOOOD. Out of the entire CNY period, I do think the most important meal would have to be the Eve of Chinese New Year aka "团圆饭", which would be a massive feast and typically involve a full day of cooking.

As for me, this year was actually the first time I have ever spent CNY away from my family. But thankfully, I'm fortunate enough to have those cousins that I grew up with from Tawau (and several other good friends) here with me in Melbourne. So, I took it upon myself to fulfil the daunting task of hosting the CNY Eve dinner on Saturday, (yikes!). 

It was super hectic. I had gone out till 3am on Friday night, slept at 5am, found out that morning that more people were coming, went to the market at noon (when typically most people would have had most things prepared/marinaded etc the day before) and just cooked and cooked till guests arrived at 7:30pm. It was total mad house. Several slip ups here and there but at the end, everything turned out alright. 

I tried to keep my dishes as simple as I could, as I was only doing most prep/cooking the day itself and needed to have enough food to feed everyone. Not easy, especially when you're doing everything on your own in a tiny kitchen. What I was most excited about was definitely making Mum's Sour Plum Duck (酸梅鸭) which I absolutely LOVEEE eating growing up for the very first time. I was most nervous about this dish but it actually turned out REALLY well and was the biggest hit of the night! Mum would be proud. I'm just happy I could re-create a dish that never fails to remind me of home and my Mum. You have to try this (and also the 8 Treasure Duck I shared previously)!!!

It turned out to be a great night. Everyone came over to share a meal together, before proceeding to catching the awesome display of fireworks from Crown and also playing some blackjack afterwards. It was great. Not a very conventional CNY being away from my hometown, but not a shabby one either. Not at all. For CNY, it's not where you are, but who you're with. 

Anyway, glad to have gotten the chance to open up my space for my lovely friends and family. Here's a recap of the CNY dinner we had on Saturday night! 

Fried Prawn Crackers with Sambal Belachan

Tradition for us to eat this during CNY. And makes for a great snack to serve your guests before/after dinner!

Steamed Chinese Preserved Sausage (腊肠) and Meat (腊肉)

There's many kinds of preserved meats out there but my family typically has at least one plate of it for CNY. So delicious with rice. 

Steamed with a dash of soy sauce and Shao Xin wine at the end for extra fragrance.

Steamed Chinese Cabbage with Ham

Chinese BBQ Pork (叉烧)

It was a last minute addition to the menu and it turned out very juicy and delicious. I got the recipe (here) from Food Endeavours of the Blue Apocalypse. Thanks Ai Ling!

Mum's Sour Plum Duck (酸梅鸭)

It was seriously delicious, if I do say so myself. Taste just like Mum's. Duck was fried till really fragrant but still juicy. Sauce was utterly lip smackingly good. You guys have to try!

Fried Snapper Topped with Fried Garlic and Shallots (drizzled with dark soy sauce and aromatic oil)

One of my favourite dishes of the night, actually! Simple, but lots of flavour. The tradition is to not finish the fish entirely (just leave a bit) to symbolise good luck and abundance for the coming year.

Cousin's Braised Pork and Mushrooms with Peanuts and Fermented Red Tofu

This was also seriously delicious, to say the least. YUM!

Cousin's Longan Pudding

How incredibly cute/festive! And let me tell you, they look as good as they taste!

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Sour Plum Duck (酸梅鸭) Recipe 

Ingredients:

1 whole duck

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

salt

oil for frying

Sauce:

2 bulbs of garlic

3 - 4 large French shallots (or 15 mini Asian shallots)

1 thumb size ginger

400g bottle of Lee Kum Kee's Plum Sauce

1 1/2 cups of water

Juice of 1 large lime (or to taste)

Coriander (to garnish)

Method:

1) Rub dark soy sauce all over and inside the cavity of the duck. Generously rub salt in the cavity of the duck. Leave to marinade for 2 hours or in the fridge overnight.

2) Heat up a large wok and fill almost half of it with oil. Once oil is very hot, place duck into the wok and deep fry for 15 minutes. Oil should cover half of the duck without being too full (to prevent overflowing from bubbles during frying process). Carefully turn the duck over and fry for another 15 minutes. Set aside the duck and drain the wok, leaving about 5 tbsp of oil.

3) Peel and mince ALL the garlic and shallots (yes, that's a LOT to prepare). You should have a big pile of it. Peel and slice the ginger to strips.

4) Heat up the wok again with remaining 5 tbsp of oil. Add the garlic, shallots, ginger and fry until very fragrant (about 3 minutes). 

5) Add the Plum Sauce and water, mix until well combined. 

6) Place the duck back into the wok. Put the lid on the wok and cook for 10 minutes on low to medium heat. Turn the duck and cook the duck covered on the other side for another 10 minutes. (Total cooking time for duck is 50 minutes)

7) Add in lime juice and stir. Taste to see if more lime juice is preferred.

8) Remove duck from wok. Once duck is cool enough, chop up to serve. You can heat up the sauce to drizzle over the duck when ready to eat. Garnish with chopped coriander and ENJOY! =)

Photo taken from my Instagram (@winceeee)

SO delicious and I do hope you give this recipe a go.... Gong Xi Fa Chai, everyone! =)

Chinese 8 Treasure Duck (八宝鸭) Recipe =)

A traditional and delicious dish that's slowly becoming "endangered"!!

Hey fellas!

The other day, I so happened to be having a chat with April on Instagram about one of my biggest food aspirations, which is to learn the ways to cook as well as history behind ALL the traditional Chinese dishes that I grew up eating at home from my Mother. Which is what I got to do when I was back in Kota Kinabalu for a month. There's so many that I hold dear to my heart since I was young. But today, I'd like to introduce you to a dish that's very special to my family, which is the 8 Treasure Duck.

Another reason why I'm particularly passionate about sharing about this dish is because:

1) It's one of Dad's favourites and a dish that my family and I cherish a lot on special occasions

2) It seriously is one of those "endangered dishes" that's slowly growing extinct

I'm not even kidding. It really is a dish that's more common to my parent's generation and I later realised that not a lot of people I know have had them before. Not to mention, this dish doesn't appear in the menus of any Chinese restaurant anymore (except for a very rare few, as I've mentioned in my post on Dad's 60th). As for my family, this dish isn't a dish we cook at home very often as well but we have on a few special occasions over the years and I'd be SO sad if it actually went "extinct" one day!!

That's why, it's times like these when I'm really grateful to have a blog because I get to share with people my food experiences, especially the ones that are very personal to me.

So what is the 8 Treasure Duck (八宝鸭) ?

It's basically a traditional Chinese dish (with Shanghainese origins, I believe) that's first marinated, fried, stuffed with 8 different ingredients (hence, the "treasures" or "jewels" of the dish) before it's steamed or braised till soft and falling off the bone. Absolutely DELICIOUS.

Making the 8 Treasure Duck (八宝鸭)

As Traditional as this dish may be, every family (or restaurant chef) adopts slightly different methods and ingredients for their recipes, which is fine.

But, in terms of INGREDIENTS:

My parents still think that the core ingredients should always include glutinous rice and dried shrimps at the very, very least. Other common "jewels" that you may see in other versions of this dish include dried scallops, chinese ham, gingko nuts and so on. BUT, if you have trouble finding all the ingredients, don't fret. Feel free to include anything that you feel suitable or like to eat =)

As for the METHOD:

Some may choose to debone the duck (so it's easier to eat and allows you to put more "fillings" in the dish) but we highly discourage this because it's so much more work. Plus, the bones actually add much more flavour to the dish, especially for the "treasures" encased in the cavity. We also chose to stick with this quantity of ingredients (even though it definitely can't all fit in one bird) because you'd be gathering all these various ingredients anyway, so you might as well take a bit more and steam the extras into "Lo Mai Fan" aka "Steamed Glutinous Rice" which people can enjoy.

Finally, the other thing that crossed my mind was whether this would be a dish I'd be make in Melbourne too, or only in Malaysia where I have a bigger kitchen. The answer is: YES. Because, the splatter from deep frying the duck was not as bad as I imagined and if you read the recipe below, it's pretty easy and straight-forward too!

So, there you have it. Very happy to be sharing this precious family recipe with all of you today and I truly hope you will make this to share with your friends and family too so we can keep this traditional Chinese recipe alive for many generations to come =)

The extra side of "Lo Mai Fan", which is just as awesome to eat... Especially with some chilli on the side

YUM!

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8 Treasure Duck Recipe

N.B.: The bacon was later replaced with dried red dates and the duck had been fried in this shot

Ingredients:

For the duck:

1 whole duck (2.0 - 2.5kg)

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp 5 spice powder

Oil for frying (around 2.5 L)

For the filling:

2 pieces lap cheong  (cut to thin, diagonal strips)

1/2 cup dried lotus seeds  (soaked 24hrs, then drained)

5 pieces dried chinese mushrooms  (soaked 24hrs, then drained)

2.5 tbsp dried shrimps  (rinsed, drained then drained)
1 medium carrot                                 (diced)
1 1/4 cups glutinous rice (soaked 24hrs, then drained)

5 dried red dates (pitted, but some packets sell pitted ones already)

2 yolks of salted duck egg

2 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil
Splash of Shao Xing wine

1/4 cup hot water (for the bird)

Extra hot water (for the rice)

For the sauce:

1 tbsp corn starch + 3 tbsp water
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Rub the soy sauce all over the duck and marinate in the fridge overnight.

2. Pit the soaked lotus seeds and remove the green stems (because it's bitter). 

4. Heat up enough oil in a large wok until it covers at least HALF the duck. Once hot, place the duck in the wok and fry until DARK (not golden). Later, turn the duck and fry the other side until dark as well. Set aside.

5. Dice mushrooms and chop dried shrimps finely. Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a large bowl (except for the hot water).

6. Stuff the cavity of the bird with the filling. You will have extra filling but don't worry. Pat gently to enclose. Pour 1/4 cup of hot water into the cavity (to help the steaming process).

7. With the extra filling, place in a metal/glass container and fill till half with hot water. Steam this together with the duck later and you will have extra "Lo Mai Fan" aka "Steamed Glutinous Rice" on the side =). 

8. Place the stuffed bird and container of glutinous rice in a large, deep metal dish. Steam in a wok under the LOWEST heat for 2hr 30min. Take a wet cloth to wrap the handle of the wok to stop air escaping from the wok. Check water level and top up with hot water, if necessary (though I never had to top up with water!). 

Note: If the container of glutinous rice can't fit on the metal dish with the bird, steam separately for 45minutes after the bird is done.

9. Once done, remove bird onto a serving plate and also the container of rice. Pour the remaining sauce into a small pot and place under low heat. Add the corn starch solution. Once bubbling and thickened, season with salt and pepper to taste.

10. Drizzle sauce over the duck at the table once guests are seated/dinner is ready. Decorate with blanched broccoli florets. ENJOY =)

DIG IN!!! The "treasure" was well worth the effort and UBER delicious

Would also like to take this opportunity to give a quick shoutout to the amazing Julie (of Gourmet Getaways). Julie is a fantastic blogger and an even better individual who's shown so much interest in Chinese cooking and had asked for this recipe from the start. So, I'm dedicating this recipe to you, Julie!! Thanks so much for the great friendship and inspiration all this while and I hope your family enjoys this recipe!! =)