Cooking with rice bran husks

[KennethT]

I've been having a hankering for some Balinese bebek betutu - duck cooked with tons of spices (including my stash of kencur!) typically used in Bali.  Obviously, I can't completely recreate what I had there a few years ago (they have a small type of duck only about 1kg, very lean, that's unavailable here) but I'd like to do it almost as traditionally as possible as I can within the confines of my NYC apartment.

 

Traditionally, the duck is massaged with a whole bunch of ground herbs/spices, tied up in the leaf of a type of palm tree, then set in a hole in the ground, covered with some kind of ceramic pot which is then completely covered in rice bran husks which are set aflame and the resulting ashes cook the bird for about 12 hours.  For obvious reasons, this isn't done very widely anymore - mostly for religious holidays nowadays.  Restaurants in Bali more likely will do a combination of steaming and oven roasting wrapped in banana leaves. 

 

I was thinking of doing a hybrid approach as I'd really like to get a bit of that smokiness that comes from cooking in the rice bran coals/ash.  So I was thinking about either pre-steaming or SV some duck legs, followed by a little time in my Cameron's stovetop smoker, using rice bran husks as fuel.

 

I've never done anything using rice bran husks.  I've used the smoker countless times using a variety of wood chips but never rice bran husks.  I've seen organic husks sold on Amazon - nothing expensive - they're commonly used in hydroponics (I have a few issues with that, but that's another discussion), or in composting or soil amendments.

 

Can anyone see a problem with doing what I was thinking?  Will burning the organic rice bran husks create any kind of toxic smoke I'm unaware of or have any other problems I'm not thinking about?

[KennethT]

For anyone interested, here is a rather long (about 30 minutes) program about the dish and one of the famous grandmothers who makes it the traditional way.  It's half in English half Bahasa/Balinese.... if you use the CC and autotranslate, it comes out fine.

 

 

[Duvel]

11 hours ago, KennethT said:

Can anyone see a problem with doing what I was thinking?  Will burning the organic rice bran husks create any kind of toxic smoke I'm unaware of or have any other problems I'm not thinking about?

 

I don't see any issue. Other than the compounds released as smoke (that give flavour and you know to be part of any smoked food) there is nothing to worry about. Incompletely burning material in a confined space may create a bit (not a euphemism) of CO, so keep the kitchen ventilated.

 

In Germany, smoking/cooking meat in burning hay is known, also for the homecook (e.g. in a cast iron pot). Same principle ...

[weinoo]

16 hours ago, KennethT said:

they have a small type of duck only about 1kg, very lean, that's unavailable here

 

I think the closest we can get here is probably the Muscovy hen.  It's the leanest of our commercial duck, but still almost twice as large.  Of course, if you can get some wild hunted teal, that might be your ticket. (Maybe @Shelby can help!)

[KennethT]

12 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

I think the closest we can get here is probably the Muscovy hen.  It's the leanest of our commercial duck, but still almost twice as large.  Of course, if you can get some wild hunted teal, that might be your ticket. (Maybe @Shelby can help!)

That would be fantastic, but I don't think I could afford the shipping!  I think, for a first try though, I could do a decent job using the duck legs I have in the freezer.  They'll lose most of the fat either in the steaming or in the SV portion, depending on what method I use.  Considering that I've never actually had it with those special ducks (us tourists just get standard duck pieces unless we're invited somewhere special), it's really the method I'm focusing on to dial in the flavor.  When I had it in Bali, it wasn't smoky (they probably did it in ovens there) but I could imagine it being greatly enhanced by doing it that way so I'm curious to try it.

 

So, on that note, I have a quart of organic rice husks headed my way in the next day or two...  I also need to procure some Balinese long pepper - hopefully Duals has it, but if not, I know that Kalustyan's has it so I can pick that up this weekend.  So maybe I could be trying it out in two weeks...

[weinoo]

I know you use the Cameron smoker (mine is in the closet).  My most recent smoking adventures have been with the Gin donabe - I think for a longer smoking time, you're better off with the Cameron, however.  the Gin gets and stays pretty hot inside.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

I know you use the Cameron smoker (mine is in the closet).  My most recent smoking adventures have been with the Gin donabe - I think for a longer smoking time, you're better off with the Cameron, however.  the Gin gets and stays pretty hot inside.

Yeah, the instructions that came with the smoker said that the inside gets to about 300F, which I figure may not be far off from what happens inside the clay/ceramic vessel traditionally.

[Shelby]

7 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I think the closest we can get here is probably the Muscovy hen.  It's the leanest of our commercial duck, but still almost twice as large.  Of course, if you can get some wild hunted teal, that might be your ticket. (Maybe @Shelby can help!)

I would have!!  Ronnie got 4 a few days ago...but we already ate them.  Hopefully more will show up next week when our hunter friend is here