Duck week coming up!

Nectar of 1 whole duck :)

Duck is such a tight-a** animal. Have you ever tried butchering one? No? Neither have I but this morning I tried to truss it the way you truss chicken. Into 8 pieces. Only to realize how tight-a** the animal is. Literally. If there's ever a war between the chickens and the ducks, the ducks will win hands down. Just by the sheer density of its bone and strength. In short, this person, moi, didn't manage to chop it with a recently-sharpened chef knife into 8 pieces (You need chinese cleaver to do that). I managed to get 6 instead (2 wings, 2 legs, 1 breast, 1 whatever remnants you want to call it) and looooooads of duck skin and fats. You can tell I'm happy right? Keep all the excess skin from the neck and those sweet spot near the a**, any classic french recipes will tell you to sauté your potatoes and confit with this sweet nectar.

I have a lot of new respects for this bird now. Not only did it make my life hell, my kitchen messy and oily, I can now prepare several big classics. Hah! Who says living in Africa has to be depraved. It didn't come cheap, this 2.1 kg bird.. (slightly over 20 usd for a frozen one), but I can now make cassoulet for H and Lo Ak (braised duck, teochew style) pour moi :)  canard a l'orange can wait till next time.

But for now, I'm turning the "carcasses" into a nice dark duck broth, first by roasting it. Man.. I can't wait to start!

Roasting the bones, in 180 C till brown

5 mins into roasting, can you see the nectar yet??

Oh this week is so going to be a wonderful week!! I can feel it.

n.b. I think my duck is male. I had a short biology lesson while trussing.

n.b.2. If you worry about your ever growing girth like me, Frenchies believe cooking with duck fat is "healthy" or at least, healthier than cooking with pork fats. I will enlighten us on this soon. Hang in there, and keep the fat!!