What to Cook Tonight: Duck Congee

David Herbert’s Duck Congee

Creamy, slightly salty, and a little like porridge, congee is a popular Chinese breakfast dish (but is great at any time of the day). Serve it simply with the dipping sauce, or you could also offer bowls of chopped spring onion, fried shallots, mint and ginger, so your guests can season to taste. You will find the delicious golden brown Chinese roast duck in Chinese restaurants and food stores.

Serves 6

Ingredients
2 litres chicken stock?
4cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
200g basmati rice?
1 tsp sugar?
1 cooked Chinese roast duck?
2 tsp Chinese rice wine
salt and freshly ground black pepper
coriander leaves, to garnish

For the dipping sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp grated ginger?
1 small chilli, thinly sliced
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp fish sauce

Method
1 Bring the stock and ginger to the boil in a large heavy-based saucepan. Add the rice and sugar and stir well. Reduce the heat and cover with a lid, then simmer gently, stirring frequently, for about 1 hour.

2 Remove the duck meat from the bones, with the skin intact, and shred into small pieces. Add the rice wine and half the shredded duck to the rice, bring back to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3 Meanwhile, to make the dipping sauce, combine all the ingredients, then divide among six individual dipping bowls.

4 Spoon the hot congee into soup bowls. Arrange the remaining duck on a platter and garnish with the coriander leaves. Serve with the dipping sauce.

Extracted from David Herbert’s Best Home Cooking (Penguin Lantern, approx €25), out now.