"pato tim" (duck in dark fragrant sauce)

duck leg in dark fragrant sauce

     ducks don't die as easily as chicken, uhm, i should say it isn't as easy to kill a duck as it is a chicken.  i've slit chicken throat many times before, in less than a minute or two after the chicken's blood drips, and they quibble, they're gone.  can't do that with the duck.  the duck will just innocently stare back at you after you've slit its throat.  american duck hunters suggest to chop off the duck's head!  surefire!  never fails to kill the duck... and probably whatever animal whose neck comes in the way of the hatchet!  it is a bloody and gory image.  makes you suddenly lose your appetite.  oh, well, but not me!

     there are three ingredients in this duck recipe that make the sauce dark, viz., soy sauce, brown sugar, and black fungus.  they also largely build up the fragrant sauce.

     there are a couple of other things, i.e., spices, that help build up the fragrant sauce, viz., star anise ("sangke"), five spices ("ngo hiong"), cloves ("pako"), bay leaf ("laurel"), besides ginger and garlic, and the black fungus ("tengang daga").  the sauce is, in fact, a medley of fragrant flavours!

     for a single duck weighing about a kilo (usually above a kilo) use the following as a guide:
     6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
     1 slice ginger (size of a coin)
     5-6 stars, star anise
     1 piece clove
     1-2 bay leaf
     1/2 tsp five spices
     3-4 leaves black fungus, (soaked in 1/2 cup water)
     black fungus soak water
     6-8 Tbsp soy sauce
     8-12 Tbsp brown sugar
     enough water to cover duck
     
     dump everything - with the duck (cut into serving pieces) - in a large wok, bring to a boil then simmer until duck meat is tender to the bite.
     serve with rice as topping or ala carte.

     good eats!