Khao Na Bhet (Duck & Rice)

So, just one week to go until we head off to Malaysia for a few weeks. While I’m there I hope to bring you the food we encounter on our travels and what we cook while we’re over there (we’re staying with family and are lucky to have access to a Malaysian wet and dry kitchen). We’ve also been given an amazing present of a phototour for just me and my husband around Pudu wet market so I can’t wait to bring you those images.
Before we go, this week I’ll be posting two duck recipes; I bought a whole duck as it seemed much better value than messing around with duck breasts which are so expensive. A whole duck cost £8 and provided two full main meals over two days and huge lunch portions so was definitely worth it.
Duck is actually used quite a lot in Thailand, it’s common in dishes with a Chinese origin (such as this one) and the eggs are also commonly used.
This is a simple but very satisfying one plate dish with a great flavour profile-not too sweet (I personally dislike duck in syrupy sweet sauces), a little salty, savoury and smoky.
To make this dish use:

• 1 prepared duck (you’ll have over half the duck left for other recipes)
• a few stems of choi sum/pak choi or similar vegetable, chopped
• a big squirt of kecap manis or dark soy sauce
• small splash of sesame oil
• small splash of light soy
• a dollop of honey (or palm sugar)
• a clove of garlic, sliced
• a small splash of oil
• half a cup of white rice

Coat the outside of the duck in the kecap manis/ dark soy and massage into the skin. Roast in a deep oven tray at 180 degrees celsius for 90 minutes or until the fat has rendered and the skin is crispy and dark golden brown. Lift the duck out and rest, covered in foil. Leave the tray of duck juices to cool with the tray resting at an angle.
Boil a pan of water for the rice and start cooking.
After ten minutes or so with the tray of juices it should be possible to delicately scoop off the fat using a spoon, leaving behind the dark duck juices underneath- this forms the basis for the sauce.
When the pan juices are more or less free of fat, pour the juice into a small pan and add the light soy, honey and sesame oil. Slowly heat and reduce the liquid roughly by half.
Quickly heat a wok with a splash of oil and stir fry the garlic clove for a few seconds before throwing in the choi sum and stir a few times until it wilts.
Drain rice and plate up. Sprinkle with the choi sum. Slice off a duck breast and chop into bite size pieces, placing over the top of the rice. Pour a suitable amount of the sauce over everything.