duck soup

Kiam Chye Duck Soup

I realized while trying to pen down this recipe that there was no way of phrasing this delicacy without murdering the name of the dish. Maybe not murder but definitely it would be a herculean challenge to describe the name in just one language alone or one that everyone would understand.

If I said Kiam Chye Arc, you might think it was a monument of some sort. Or salted mustard duck soup and it might be a tad too literal for some. Furthermore, it might not bring to mind that old familiarity. Or if I were to call it 咸菜鸭, you might wonder why I am writing this recipe in English. Either way it would be best to come to a compromise of terms. So Kiam Chye Duck it is then.

Anyway, this is my first time trying this recipe and according to the law of trying a recipe for the first time, I should really hammer in the works but yet not cloud the original intention of the dish. You got to taste the salted mustard, the indelible flavour of the duck and the sourness of the tomatoes and sour plums. Everyone else in this quintessential Macbeth broth is secondary. Now all you need is a little lightning, thunder and rain and it would be perfect.

Recipe

Ingredients

1. 1 kg or Half a duck *buy from wet market is cheaper*
2. 500 grams of Kiam Chye aka salted mustard
3. Bunch of garlic.
4. 100 grams of ginger *sliced*
5. 4 sour plums *Chinese preserved plums*
6. 3 medium Tomatoes

Method

1. Par boil the chopped duck pieces for about 5 minutes. Discard the water. This is to get rid of scum as duck meat tends to have lots of that. Also it is very oily, so best to boil twice and discard the water.

2. Place the Kiam Chye leaf by leaf into the pot. Cut tomatoes into quarts and dump them in. Dump the garlic in the pot and the sour plums. Dump the sliced ginger into the pot. Once they are all in the pot, make sure the water covers the ingredients.

3. Boil the ingredients in high heat for 15 minutes before putting the pot into the thermal cooker to slowly braise the meat further. By evening it would be ready and delicious.

Bon Appetit!