This classic Portuguese dish originated in one of their Asian colonies many years ago and was adapted for the local taste. It has become a special dish that they eat at celebrations and high holidays like Christmas and New Year.
This is the recipe using a whole duck, very luxurious, OR what you can also do is use a duck carcass that still has
plenty of meat on it and less rice. We go to our local Chinese restaurant for
special occasions and often order the Peking duck. You have paid for the whole duck,
so ask for the carcass to take home – don’t let them chop it up. Put it into
the freezer, whole, until you want to make this dish. Use just one cup of rice
If using a whole duck, this serves 6 - 8 people. If using a duck carcass, just 2 or 3, but you do end
up with lots of extra duck stock which you can freeze till you are ready to
make soup from it
A 2 kilo whole duck,
cut up into 8 pieces - 2½ cups rice - 5 cups duck stock (from cooking the duck)
- half of a Chorizo - 2 medium onions, quartered - 1 peeled carrot - 1 leek – 1
celery stalk, trimmed - 2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole - 2 bay leaves -
4 cloves - 6 stalks of fresh parsley - 4 sprigs fresh thyme - 1 teaspoon whole Black peppercorns – 1 star anise – 1 T duck fat - salt- 2 cloves of garlic,
finely chopped
Method: Push the cloves into pieces of the onion. Wash the
leek very well and roughly chop it. Peel the carrot. Trim and wash the celery.
Roughly chop both. Rinse the parsley and the fresh thyme
Wash the whole duck and cut into 8 pieces
In a big pot, add the duck, onion with cloves, leek, celery
stalk, carrot, garlic, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, star anise, peppercorns and
cover with water. Season with salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer,
covered with a lid, for 1 hour. Remove the lid and allow to cook for a further
45 minutes until the duck is very tender and almost falling of the bones. This
will slightly reduce and concentrate the stock. Do not overcook it or you will
have a pot full of small bones. If using
a carcass, leave it whole and cook until it is easy to take the meat off the
bones, no more than an hour and a half
Remove the duck from the stock and let it cool. Remove the
flesh, shred it into big pieces. Discard the skin and all the bones – be very
thorough, because the duck has some very small bones
Pour the duck stock through a sieve– you will need 5 cups for the recipe.
The stock will be very rich and have a lot of fat from the duck, which will
give the rice its special flavour. If the duck was very fatty and SA ducks
often are, there will be a very thick layer of fat. You can let the stock go
cold in the fridge and take off some of the excess duck fat. Keep this for
roasting potatoes, they are the best
In a big pan with a tight fitting lid, over medium heat, add
1 or 2 tablespoons of duck fat and sauté the rice for a minute or two until it is
well coated in the fat and almost sticking to the pan
Add the duck stock, stir and scrape off any rice attached to
the pan. Check the salt, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, tightly covered,
for 17 minutes. During this time DO NOT
uncover or stir the rice
Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes without
uncovering the pan or stirring the rice
Fluff up the rice, so you don’t have any lumps
Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C / 375°F
In a deep oven-proof serving dish, spread half of the fluffed-up
rice and add some of the chopped garlic. Spread the shredded duck on top.
Cover with the remaining rice and the rest of the chopped garlic. Or you can
just mix in the duck and garlic with the rice if layering doesn’t work for you
Slice the chorizo and scatter the slices on top of the rice
Bake in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes or until the
top layer of the rice is lightly golden and beginning to crisp at the edges.
The chorizo should be crispy too. Sprinkle with some parsley or chopped chives
and serve immediately. Great with a green salad and a good Chenin Blanc to cut
through the richness and the spicy chorizo
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
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