啤酒鴨 Beer Duck

Beer duck is a popular dish from Hunan cuisine (aka Xiang cuisine, one of the 8 culinary traditions/cooking styles in traditional Chinese food). Unlike the numbing spicy Sichuan food, Xiang cuisine is “dry hot”, or pure spicy. A real deal for people who enjoy spicy food. Beer duck is not just spicy, but is slow cooked in beer with other spices such as star anise, Chinese cinnamon, bayleaf to give a very rich flavor. I like dark beer more then light one, so I used dark beer to stew the duck legs. No worries for friends who don’t drink. You won’t get drunk after wolfing down this beer duck, but will surely want to have some more. And it goes perfectly with a cold beer, too!

Ingredients:

• 4 duck legs (about 700g)
• Dark beer 600ml (When choosing beer, avoid the type with strong bitter taste, I used the brown beer with light sweetness. If you don’t like dark beer, replace with light beer. )
• 1 medium pleurotus
• 1 medium carrot
• 6 ginger slices
• 5 garlic cloves
• 2 Scallions

Seasoning:

Seasoning A

• 1 tsp sichuan peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Chinese cinnamon
• 2 Star anise
• 4-5 dried Chili peppers (adjustable to flavor. If you prefer a less spicy beer duck, remove and discard the seeds)

Seasoning B

• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

The Cooking:

1. Prepare duck legs, trim off excessive fat, skin then rinse clean. In a pot, add in duck legs, scallions, ginger slices, and enough cold water that completely submerges meat. Turn on small to medium heat. When you see water starts having small bubbles reaching boiling point, turn off heat. Remove duck legs, rinse clean, set aside.
2. Bring a frying pan to high heat, add oil after pan is hot, then throw in seasoning A, fry and stir the spices until aromatic, then add in dried chili peppers, continue stir frying for a coupe of minutes until you see the color of chili peppers become darker and crispy.
3. Put duck legs into pan,  sear both sides of duck legs then add in seasoning B. Gently stir fry duck legs to evenly coat soy sauce on surface for coloring and flavor.
4. Pour in beer and boil until bubbling then turn off heat. Transfer the whole content into a stewpot or a deep pot. Cook with medium to low heat to stew with lid on for 40 minutes.
5. The liquid in pot should already reduce in half and much thickened with a dark caramel color and rich flavor after 40 minutes. Sprinkle white pepper powder before removing duck legs into a serving plate, set aside. In this picture I also plate the duck legs with cooked basmati and millet rice.
6. Turn up heat again. Slice pleurotus, dice carrot, then add into the duck sauce to cook for a few minutes until sofen. Remove and garnish the plate before serving.