Duck Pho
Today, as promised, we dealt with our duck carcass, from the other night. I tossed that puppy into a pot of water early this morning, and simmered it until the bones got crumbly. I then added in the wings, for meat purposes, and simmered it a bit longer. Next, I spooned the fat off of the top, for use later. I took the solids out of the pot and turned them over to my sous chef, Her-Heidiness, to separate edible meat from anything else. Anything we don't eat, gets ground up for use in making special dog cookies, for Cherokee, our big Great Pyrenees.
Once the fat was separated off, I added the following traditional Pho spices: whole cloves, star anise, Vietnamese cinnamon, black cardamom pods, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, ginger, onions, Vietnamese fish sauce, Vietnamese palm sugar. The pot was simmered for a couple more hours, and then put through a fine strainer, retaining only the broth,
(Note: If you do not remove the fat "before" adding in the spices, you lose two ways. First, much of what spices provide is fat soluble, so when you remove the fat, you remove much of the flavor. Second, the fat is spiced, so you can't use it for unrelated cooking.)
Finally, the Pho was assembled: spiced duck broth, pho rice noodles, sliced red onion, scallions, cilantro, Thai basil, mint, mung bean sprouts, and mushrooms (from the other night: crimini, trumpet, oyster, Chinese seafood). Then the resulting soup was dressed for enjoyment: fresh lime juice, Hoisin sauce, Sriracha, and sugar.
The broth was lighter and more delicate than our traditional beef. It was quite tasty, indeed.
To wash it down, like the other night, some nice pink grapefruit juice and vodka.
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Stay tuned. I still have two duck legs with oysters attached. I'm thinking Szechuan five-spice duck...
Enjoy,
Rich P
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