Duck Rendang
I have been craving flavours of the motherland lately. I cannot wait to be able to travel freely and safely again to see friends and family in Indonesia. But until then, I’ll bring Indonesia to my home kitchen here in Toronto.
Rendang is one of the quintessential dishes of Indonesia. It is a form of dry curry from West Sumatra, traditionally made with beef or chicken. The meat of choice is slowly stewed in a mixture of spices and coconut milk until it’s meltingly tender.
Recently I bought a whole duck, and usually with duck, I would either roast it with five-spice or hoisin; or make a duck confit. They’re both great, but I wanted something different. I wanted to incorporate a more traditional Indonesian flavours to the duck. And I thought, what about duck rendang. Duck is a flavoursome meat that can really hold to the spices like ginger, chillies, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, lemongrass, tamarind, amongst others.
I mentioned this idea to cook the duck in rendang spices to my mother over a FaceTime call. She was intrigued by it and suggested cooking the duck in a pressure cooker to get it really tender. I followed her advice and safe to say that mother knows best. After only 25 minutes of cooking in the pressure cooker, the duck is falling-off-the-bone tender.
Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. They are all common ingredients you may already have in your pantry or easily available at your local grocery store.
What I love about making homemade curry paste is you can really personalise it to your liking. The recipe below honestly isn’t spicy even though there are chillies involved. I deseed the fresh chillies and use only a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, just enough to give some warmth without burning your intestines later. But if you like it hot, keep the seeds and add as much chillies as you can handle.
I mentioned the duck is cooked in a pressure cooker, but I also have to mention that this duck rendang has two cooking stages. Duck is a fatty meat and the first stage of the cooking process is to try to render as much fat as possible. Nothing complicated, I promise. Just simply roast them in the oven for an hour. And the trick is to make lots of little pricks on the duck skin with a wooden skewer before roasting.
Now, with the accumulated duck fat later, I beg you to save them. Use this fat instead of oil next time you roast some potatoes. Toss some garlic, fresh rosemary, sea salt flakes, and black pepper. You may thank me later.
Also I must mention, please don’t expect a crispy duck skin here. Forget it. This is not the dish for that.
Duck Rendang
Serves 4 — 6
- 1 duck, around 2 kg, cleaned and cut into portions
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
For the paste:
- 12 small shallots, peeled
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- 4 red chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 60 ml vegetable oil
- 2 lemongrass, lightly bruised
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 bay leaves
- 6 cloves
- 2 tablespoons palm sugar/dark brown sugar
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 200 ml water/chicken stock
- 60 ml sweet dark soy sauce (kecap manis), plus more for serving
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Lay the duck portions on a roasting tin, making sure the skins are dry. If not, use a kitchen paper to pat them dry. Using a wooden skewer, lightly prick the skins all over.
Scatter the ground coriander and cumin on the duck and give them a good massage with the dry rub. Roast in the oven, skin side up for one hour. Once the hour is up, remove duck from the oven and set aside to rest. Save the duck fat for later use.
Make the rendang paste by blending the shallots, garlic, chillies, coriander, cumin, tamarind, ginger, red pepper flakes, salt, and vegetable oil.
In a pot over medium heat, cook the rendang paste with a couple sticks of lemongrass, cinnamon, bay leaves, and cloves for ten minutes. Then pour in the coconut milk, water/chicken stock, palm sugar/dark brown sugar, and the sweet soy sauce. Check for the seasoning and adjust to your liking.
Transfer this mixture to your pressure cooker pot as well as the roasted duck portions. Set the timer and cook for 25 minutes.
Serve with rice, salad on the side, and drizzle a bit more of the kecap manis on the duck if you wish.
