This duck and cabbage salad with ginger fish sauce feeds a crowd, with cool crisp cabbage, tender sweet duck and a warm, fragrant dipping sauce. The two hard parts are taking the gaminess out of the duck and keeping the cabbage from weeping.
The duck is rubbed with salt, then with minced ginger mixed into 100ml white rice wine, and finally poached with bruised ginger and a charred shallot. Those aromatics in the poaching pot are what make the meat smell clean.
This batch weighs about 2.4kg, at roughly 239 calories per 100g.
Method
Clean the duck, rub it all over with salt and rinse. Mince a piece of ginger, mix it with 100ml white rice wine and rub the mixture over the whole bird to take away the gamy smell, then rinse again.
Discard the tough outer cabbage leaves, quarter the head and shred it, soak the shreds in lightly salted water, rinse and drain. Peel and shred the carrot. Slice the onion into thin rings and freeze them for 20 minutes so they lose their bite and turn crisp.
Pick the Thai basil leaves and cut them into lengths, and chop the cilantro. Roast 100g peanuts, rub off the skins and crush them coarsely. Slice 4 shallots and leave them out until slightly wilted; char the remaining shallot until fragrant and peel it.
Put the duck in a large pot, cover with water and add 1 bruised piece of ginger, the charred shallot and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to medium. After 25 to 30 minutes, pierce the thigh; clear juices mean it is done. Lift it into ice water for a few minutes, drain, then chop into bite sized pieces.
Mix the salad dressing from 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 tablespoon kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and the juice of 1 lime, stirring until dissolved.
Heat 1 tablespoon cooking oil in a pan and fry the wilted sliced shallots until golden, then lift them out to drain.
Mix the ginger fish sauce: put 1 teaspoon kOBE Monk Fruit Blend and 1 teaspoon MSG in a bowl, add 1 tablespoon cooled boiled water and stir until dissolved, add the juice of 1 lime and 1 tablespoon fish sauce, then finish with 2 pieces of ginger cut into threads, 3 minced garlic cloves and 1 minced chili.
Combine the cabbage, carrot, onion and duck in a large bowl and pour over the salad dressing, tossing well. Add the cilantro and Thai basil and leave for 10 to 20 minutes to take on the flavor, then scatter over the fried shallots and crushed peanuts. Serve with the ginger fish sauce alongside.
Tips
A mature male duck of 1 to 1.5kg has more flavor than a female or a young bird.
The poaching liquid makes a good rice porridge to round out the meal.
Twenty minutes in the freezer takes the sharpness out of sliced onion and makes it properly crisp.
Tossing the salad right before serving keeps the cabbage crunchy, as it weeps if it sits dressed.
Pound the ginger by hand with the garlic and chili for a thick sauce, since a blender leaves it thin and faint.
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The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.