How To Cook Chinese Stewed Duck？

There are many duck recipes available out there and I am a lover of duck meat. Yet, I must confess that despite there being such a big variety of duck recipes, I am still partial to the chinese duck recipes – peking duck, roasted duck and stewed duck. Today, I shall share with you my wife’s family recipe for stewed duck. We call it Lor Ark in Hokkien.

This duck recipe uses dark soya sauce and some simple ingredients to give the duck an aromatic flavour yet retain the juiciness of the flesh. If you can get hold of the ingredients mentioned, I would recommend that you try this recipe for you will be amazed by how easy it is to cook a wonderful and delicious stewed duck dish.
This is my wife’s recipe for Chinese Stewed Duck
Ingredients

• 1 whole duck (approx 2 kgs)
• 3 inches galangal (lengkuas)
• 8 shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 50 grammes 5 spice powder
• 3 tablespoons dark soya sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• salt to taste
• 1 litre hot water
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil

Method
Clean duck thoroughly by rubbing it with some salt. Rinse. Rub about 30 grammes of 5 spice powder over the duck and allow to marinade for 1 to 2 hours.
Pound the galangal, garlic and shallots separately.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in wok and saute shallots till aromatic. Remove shallots. Add garlic and saute till aromatic. Remove garlic. Add galangal and saute till aromatic.
Return shallots and garlic into the wok and stir together with galangal till even. Add dark soya sauce and sugar. Stir well.
Add duck and coat it with mixture. Allow duck to cook and shrink slightly. Control heat so that duck does not burn. Once duck has shrunk slightly, add about 200 ml water and allow it to boil. Continue with another 200 ml and repeat process till 1 litre of water used. The water should be filled up to at least half the duck. Add remaining 5 spice powder and reduce heat to simmer.
Stew / simmer for 1.5 hours turning every 10 minutes. Add salt to taste and water if it is drying out.
Remove duck and drain off excess gravy. Allow to cool before serving with gravy (sieve gravy to remove spices before serving).