Braised duck by Angela Seah Thulin

There are many kinds of braised duck recipes. I love the Teochew braised duck that my ex mother-in-law made. Hers are more towards the sweet side, black (not dark brown, as her soya sauce are of a special brand that she orders from Malaysia) and the gravy is often pretty thick too. I've done this dish before using her method but today, i added a few ingredients. It resulted in a more balanced taste where all the herbs blended well together. 

Ingredients -
1 whole duck
8 tbsp sugar
2.5 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
2 cloves
1 dried bay leaf
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee dark soy sauce
8 slices of blue ginger 
5 slices ginger, gently smashed

Steps -
1. Clean the whole duck.
2. Rub salt all over the duck and rinse off. Then pat dry the duck.
3. Stuff any few slices of the ginger into cavity.
4. Heat up wok. Pour the sugar in and cook till it melts.
5. Hold the duck (hand at one end each), sear one side of the duck by few secs then flip to the other to cook.
6. Pour dark soya sauce on top of the duck body, then add water (covering at least 1/2 of the duck), add cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves, bay leaf and ginger.
7. Give a stir and cover with lid. Let it cook on low heat for 2hrs.. Flip the duck at every 15-20minutes.

For the dry noodles serving - i just blanched the mee pok with boiling water for a while then into cold icy water few secs and then back into boiling water for another few seconds. The same method for the bean sprouts. In a bowl, i added some sesame oil, transferred the ready mee pok and bean sprouts in and then scooped some of the duck gravy to the mee pok - and done!

Notes -
1. My duck weighed 1.7kg
2. I cooked my braised duck for 1 hour 10 mins on low heat using Le Creuset 27cm pot.