Stewed Duck/Lor Ark

This is what I had simmering away on the stove when I locked myself out of the house the other day. Check out the story here I really like duck but I never learn how to cook it. I remember my mom and grandmother used to cook this for us when we were young and we get to eat this only during festive season. My mom said it takes too long to cook and is not easy cleaning their feathers either. Yes, we used to raise our own chickens and ducks a long time ago.

I bought a duck last week when I went to Philly Chinatown and decided to cook half of it. My favorite way of cooking duck is to stew it or us Hokkien called it 'Lor Ark'. Here is the recipe for cooking the whole duck.

Ingredients :

1 whole duck - around 3 pounds
2" of galangal (I replaced it with ginger since I don't have it)
6 shallots
5 cloves of garlic
3 tsp of 5 spice powder
3 pieces of star anise
3 tbsp of thick dark soy sauce
some rock sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
enough water for simmering

1) Clean duck throughly and pat dry. Rub the 5 spices powder all over the duck.
2) Slice galangal thinly, clean and peel the shallots,garlic and leave them whole.
3) Heat up some oil and stir fry the galangal, shallots and garlic until lightly brown.
4) Put in the duck and pan fried it until the duck shrink and lightly brown on both side. Add in dark soy sauce, star anise, salt, pepper and sugar.
5) Add in enough water to cover half the duck and bring to boil. Lower down the heat and let is simmer.
6) Check and turn the duck every 15 min for at least an hour or until tender. Add more water if the gravy dries out.
7) Remove the duck and let it cool. Skim off the oil from the gravy and if the gravy is too thin increased the heat and let it reduce until gravy thicken.
8) Cut the duck and drizzle the gravy on top. Serve warm.