Eight-treasure stuffed calabash duck (Ba bao hu lu ya) from Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China (page 116) by Fuchsia Dunlop

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Notes about this recipe

  • krista_jo on September 14, 2019

    [cont’d from prev note] Garnish: Cut the crosses deep and narrow. The peppers fell out in cooking and I had to re-insert them, but it was worth it for the colour pop. Sauce: If serving more than two I would make more sauce from the poaching liquid (but I would also degrease it first). Serving: This was spectacular to look at, easy to carve, and spectacularly good to eat. The duck flesh was tender and the filling was amazingly savoury. Two of us gobbled must of it up for a special dinner (if serving a crowd I’d make many additional dishes.) In the end, this didn’t require special technique, just advance planning, other than boning the duck. You could probably bone it the easier way by slicing all the way through and then sewing all the way up, but sewing was my least favourite part of the whole process, so that wouldn’t be my preference. I thought it would be good, but I was surprised at just how good it was. I will make it again for sure!

  • krista_jo on September 14, 2019

    [cont’d from prev note] Trussing: salt the duck while it’s still inside out. I didn’t have cotton thread (polyester might melt) so I separated the plies in my kitchen string and that worked. Take care to stuff the duck evenly so that it is symmetrical after you tie the calabash string. I managed to do that but I should have tied the string tighter as the duck shrank quite a bit in cooking. Frying: The wings stuck out and I would maybe truss them for frying next time. When I added the duck the oil came quite high up the sides of the wok, use caution! Most importantly: the bottom of the duck will touch the bottom of the wok, so while the rest of the duck is getting nice and brown the bottom will be turning black. I burned it slightly, I would estimate 2 minutes max frying before turning it over. Poaching: Dunlop refers to a ‘saucepan’ but my 7-qt Le Creuset was the only pot big enough. This required about 3 kettles worth of water. [cont’d]

  • krista_jo on September 14, 2019

    I made this! Here is what I did/learned. It wasn’t hugely difficult, and was very much worth the effort. Do it! -Mushrooms: soaked overnight in room temp water rather than short soak in boiling water — results are better. -Ready-to-use lotus seeds: could not find these; soaked some dried lotus seeds overnight. Soaked, 23 seeds is about 50 grams. -Rice: I used short-grain glutinous rice. Boning the duck: I watched several youtube videos of boning chickens, this was hugely helpful. (method is sometimes called “tunnel boning”) I set aside an hour and didn’t feel rushed. I didn’t use the scissors as much as Dunlop; I scraped the flesh from the bone using the blade of the knife, then cut around the joints and resumed scraping the next bone (per Jacques Pepin method). Found no glands. Tore the skin in one place but sewed it up and it looked fine when cooked. [cont’d]

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