Besides pan frying, I use the pressure cooker more than any other cooking methods. It is a time and energy saver. For pork, ox-tail and duck, nothing beats the pressure cooker in tenderizing the meat in the shortest time possible. I do Sous Vide duck confit quite often, but i don’t want to have it so often that i become tired of it, so i had to explore other recipes for duck. Braised duck is a nice alternative.
Let me first state the ingredients required for this easy dish: duck (legs or whole), spring onion, ginger, soy sauce, dark soy sauce (optional), rock sugar, salt, as well as eggs and bean curd as side dishes. Most recipes call for cooking the duck in a wok, but to save time, i did so in a pressure cooker. The water level must be at least slightly above the duck to cook it thoroughly and evenly. 30 minutes of cooking would soften the duck meat enough for consumption.
I used only water to cook the duck in the pressure cooker, rather than adding ginger and spring onion at this stage, so that, rather than throwing away the water (broth) left behind, i can use it to cook porridge. I pour most of the broth (leaving behind about inch-thick) into another pot and spoon away the excessive duck fat (not all of it since duck fat is tasty) as well as the impurities. My trip to Jeju inspired me to cook porridge with green bean, using low heat for an hour.
Meamwhile, i added ginger slices, spring onion, rock sugar, salt and soy sauce into the pressure cooker pot, plus bean curd and boiled eggs, cooking on medium heat for an hour as well, until the broth is reduced to a thick gravy. The contents should be flipped around every 15 minutes or so, but otherwise, no more attention is needed.
This easy 2 pot combo makes for a comforting meal. To be honest though, the one hour cooking time wasn’t enough to marinade the duck. You do get a much better result in terms of both taste and texture with Sous Vide, which involves 12 hours of cooking. To mitigate this, i suppose you can brine the duck first.
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