Quack

I must be thinking of YK when I decided to cook duck on impulse last Sunday. Roasted duck is YK's flavour of the month but I doubt anyone with a small apartment kitchen can pull that one off successfully. The next best thing would be to make Teochew braised duck which happens to be my father's favourite dish.

Naturally, I started missing YK while waiting around for the duck to cook but I figured I can always cook another one when he returns next week.

There is more room for improvement of course. The meat wasn't as tender as I had expected even after almost 2 hours of braising. It also wasn't savoury enough (which is perfect for my parents) as I had held back on the salt when I saw how dark the sauce was. Dark soya sauce is, afterall, all colour and not much taste.

The extra effort of basting the duck in a caramel and dark soya sauce mixture for 15 minutes paid off handsomely because I ended up with a dark beauty of a duck. Adding pandan leaves was also a good idea because it lends such a nice fragrance to the dish.

Galangal (blue ginger), garlic and pandan leaves.

I had to haul the duck out just under 2 hours when I saw how thick and gooey the gravy had become. And I was afraid that adding more water will only ruin the taste. On hindsight, I should have added some stock (or water) and let the duck simmer away for another 30 minutes until the meat fall off the bones.

I must say, the smell of duck braising is quite heavenly. Rusty must have been intoxicated with the aroma because he spent the afternoon sleeping in the kitchen.