That little duck's bones...

Here’s what we did with that little duck’s bones…

After most of the meat was pulled we put the duck bones, skin, fat, deliciousness into a stockpot. We topped off the duck with water. Since the skin was already seasoned we didn’t add anything else. The duck stock simmered for a couple of hours and before we went to bed, I placed the stock pot into the oven at 200 over night.

After this reduced overnight we ended up with close to a gallon of stock and a good inch of duck fat. Delicious, perfect duck fat. Heath pulled the meat and we had almost a pound of meat to go into the gumbo.

I used that luscious duck fat to create my roux for the gumbo. As the fat melted, I noticed an almond almost cherry smell that gave so much character to the roux. The nutty flavor was developed as the roux darkened.

I added duck meat, sausage, okra and fresh tomatoes along with onions, peppers and spices and then let the gumbo coast for hours.

So it went down like this:

I get home from New York all hyped up to attempt to recreate duck from the Peking Duck House in Midtown. I’ve made the plan in my head. I’ve figured out how to southernize it, how to Ubonize it.

And then I went grocery shopping.

Uggh! After Fresh Market, Kroger, Walmart and all my local mom and pop grocery stores had no duck, I decided to beg my hunter friends. No dice, no sharing.

I wasn’t ready to give up. As I headed south on I55 I saw it….the Oriental Supermarket. Now I know I visited this location as a 4^th grader…but then it was a Chuck E. Cheese. Now…next to Cowboy Malone’s (where a cowboy deal is a good deal) there is this fabulous market full of hope…and Duck!

I bought a Peking Roast Duck…I’m not a total moron. I’ve never given this vision of a duck recipe a try; I needed some back up. The roast duck was hanging by its neck and given to me in a brown paper bag. Sigh! Swoon! I also bought a fresh raw duck so I could try out my deep fried duck recipe.

(remove the head and the little feet, coat duck in dry rub and deep fry for 5 minutes per pound…you know, just like you would a turkey.)

The result was beautiful. We tried both the roast and the fried duck. My mom liked the roast duck best. The rest of us were partial to the fried duck. We sliced the meat and served it with cucumber, green onions and Ubon’s hoisin sauce. Now I won’t say that I perfected an ancient and cherished duck dish. But I definitely southernized it.

Here’s how you can Ubonize it:

In a blender:

2 cups Ubon’s BBQ Sauce

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup sweet soy sauce

2 tbsp of regular soy sauce

4-5 drops of sesame oil

Blend well and heat. As the sauce simmers, it will thicken.

Next I’ll tell you what we did with those little duck bones!!!