Braised Duck

Whenever I got back from work I just feel like leaping on my bed and take a nap. On top of that, working in a food company means you're pretty much surrounded by food. I used to have dinner at 5:30 ish, but now I can wait until 8 for dinner.

It's Friday and I got back from work early so I thought I'd cook something a little bit fancy for dinner tonight: braised duck.

Wegman's is an awesome place to shop compared to Super Walmart. Well, it's not that I have a choice - Wegman's is closer than Super Walmart in my new town so I don't see why I shouldn't go to Wegmans. I found duck leg (yes, not a whole duck! Finally, something that can be finished in a single serve!). It's more expensive overall to buy duck leg from than to buy a whole duck but I only need one duck leg so I gave it a shot.

Very simple steps and ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp + 2/3 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp + 1 tbsp sugar

1 star anise

3 cloves

1/4 tbsp nutmeg

1/4 tbsp white pepper

10 garlic cloves, pressed

about 500g meat (duck/pork/chicken)

500 ml (16 fl oz) chicken stock

Directions:

1) Heat the oil, then add 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, star anise, cloves, nutmeg, white pepper and garlic cloves. Fry until it's fragrant.

2) Add meat. Turn every 10 seconds to make sure every part of the meat is coated with the sauce. Do for about 5-8 minutes.

3) Add the rest of the soy sauce and sugar and chicken stock. If it doesn't submerge the meat completely, that's fine as long as you keep flipping the meat over to make sure that all parts are cooked.

4) Cover and let simmer for about 45 minutes on low heat.

Aaaand it's done!

I love braising because you can do something else during the 45 minutes wait.