12.03.06
Duck Pho
So what do you do with all that duck stock you made?
Well, you can make soup! Many kinds of soup. But it is particularly nice, I think, for pho, the Vietnamese noodle soup. The soul of the bowl, with pho, is the broth. And now that you’ve got a nice rich duck stock to work with, you might as well, no?
Take 2 quarts of stock and put them in a pot. Add a good sized bundle of green onions (trimmed) and a thumb-sized hunk of ginger root that has been peeled and cut into coins. Then pop in a small piece of star anise, an inch-long section of cinnamon stick (the Vietnamese kind if you’ve got it), some whole coriander seed (if you don’t have whole coriander, a light sprinkling of the ground kind is fine), a couple of whole cloves, and a half teaspoon-ish quantity of sweet fennel seed. A healthy shot of nam pla (fish sauce) will salt and season at the same time. Cover and simmer for an hour, strain, then hold at a low simmer until ready to serve.
When you are getting ready to make and serve your pho, take two cooked duck breasts (I don’t add the breasts to the cassoulet, so I used those) and slice them thinly. If you have any leftover other meats — fish, thinly sliced steak, tofu, tempeh, seitan, whatever you have around that needs to be used — cut them into bite-sized bits and set them aside, too. If you have leftover Asian dumplings, those can go in, too, particularly the won ton sort, and pot stickers work too (but not the steamed buns like gai bao). You’ll also want some sort of vegetable component. Mung bean sprouts and Thai basil and cilantro are traditional; a chiffonade of romaine lettuce is very nice, or if you enjoy bitter greens like endive that’s good also.
Last, cook up some noodles. Thin rice noodles are traditional; thin egg vermicelli are also good. Whatever sort of Asian noodle you like is fine, really. Cook them according to package directions and drain them.
Then assemble your bowl of pho. Noodles first, then non-vegetable toppings, then broth, and don’t forget to leave room for veggies.
Delicious and light and savory. A pound of noodles, two quarts of broth, and two duck breasts will serve 4. Finish the bowl by squeezing in a healthy wedge of lime (or two, if you’re like me and you really like lime) over the top of it all. It also helps the duck go further, and since duck is a little on the expensive side, why not?