Zhuang Preserved Lemons / Lemon Duck

[liuzhou]

I didn't expect to return to this thread, but almost 7 years to the day after starting it, I have finally tracked down the recipe for the lemon duck - including the 'secret ingredients'. No grandmothers were harmed in the making of this post.

Ingredients:

A duck. As suggested above, a Pekin duck is preferred.

2 Preserved lemons

50g Pickled ginger

8 Pickled Chili peppers

10 Pickled Chinese scallions (Allium Chinense) 藠头

20g Goosefruit (Randia cochinchinensis) 山黄皮

Half a bulb of garlic

1 small piece ginger

15ml light soy sauce

10ml dark soy sauce

30ml Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing is preferred)

10ml oyster sauce

10g sugar

Salt to taste

Method:

Chop duck into bite size pieces (on the bone).

Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the small piece of ginger and 15ml of the cooking wine. Add duck and blanch briefly. Drain and allow to dry.

Slice the pickled ginger and pickled peppers into slivers. Cut the Chinese scallions in half. Cut the lemon, remove the flesh then slice the peel into thin slices. Peel the garlic but leave cloves whole.

Heat a dry wok. When medium hot add the duck and allow the fat to render out. Do not add oil.

When the duck has taken on some colour, add the pickled ginger, pickled chili peppers, pickled scallions, goosefruit and garlic.

Stir fry until the duck is almost cooked through. Add the cooking wine, soy sauces, oyster sauce, sugar and salt and continue to fry until the duck is fully cooked. If drying out, add a little water, but the final dish should be fairly dry.

Finally add the preserved lemon and fry for one minute.

Serve

I'm told that is is essential not to cook the lemon any longer than a minute as long cooking can turn it bitter and the scent evaporates..

Edited August 20, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[Keith_W]

Thanks for the recipe, Liuzhou.

Since I can't get those Zhuang preserved lemons here, I might have to make my own. There is an abundance of lemons here, and you can easily get preserved lemons, but these are usually made by Greeks or Middle Easterners. I think that would be completely different to Chinese preserved lemons! Can you comment on whether these can be substituted?

[liuzhou]

didn't expect to return to this thread, but almost 7 years to the day after starting it, I have finally tracked down the recipe

That should, of course, read "five years". I said I can't count.

you can easily get preserved lemons, but these are usually made by Greeks or Middle Easterners. I think that would be completely different to Chinese preserved lemons! Can you comment on whether these can be substituted?

Yes, I'm fairly sure European or North African preserved lemons would be very different. They tend to be salted for about a month at most. The Zhuang lemons are salted for at least a year, although five to ten years is considered best. The flavour is much more intense.

Edited August 21, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

I am delighted to be able to tell you that the company operating the Lemon Duck restaurants mentioned above opened a new branch here in Liuzhou on August 1st 2019, not 15 minutes slow stroll from my home.

I'll wait unill the initial rush is over and visit, investigate and report!