As a British-American-Chinese family, my parents often struggled to integrate the cultures in which my sister and I were raised. Between our love for Doctor Who and PB&J sandwiches, it was hard for them to pass on their ties to Shanghai, where they both grew up.
The only time we could all truly connect to our Chinese heritage was at dinner, when my parents managed to conjure up the most incredible food. Every bite transported me to humid summers spent in Shanghai, where my sister and I would stroll through crowded fruit markets with our grandmother and gobble down spicy bowls of malatang with our cousins.
When I went off to college, unable to cook any of my parent’s dishes, I felt untethered and lost while wandering through the dining halls. Home-cooking was a mysterious and haphazard process to me. A dash of this, a sprinkle of some unlabeled spice, and with a quick flip of the wok, there would be a delicious eggplant dish on the table, complete with rice, of course. It was my parents’ ultimate magic trick.
So, when the pandemic brought me home for a semester for the first time in four years, I decided to learn how to recreate my mother’s braised duck for our small Thanksgiving.
It was the very definition of chaos. My mother yelled directions at me from across the kitchen and I translated as I went, from Shanghainese to English and from pinches to teaspoons. I scrambled around the cabinets searching for star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and what I later found out was Chinese cinnamon bark, stored in an old jelly jar.
And although it was much more difficult than my parents made it seem, sometime between frantically scribbling notes down and demystifying those ingredients I could never pronounce, I emerged with a perfectly cooked duck and finally found my own connection to Shanghai.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to boil (enough to submerge the duck) and prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Once boiling, carefully add the duck, cover the pot and bring back to boil.
3. Skim off any scum that forms and add the ginger, green onion, and Shaoxing wine. Cover the pot with a lid and lower heat to a gentle simmer for 45 minutes.
4. In the last 5 minutes, add giblets and neck if using.
5. After full time is up, add "a splash" (about 2 cups or 240 ml) of the duck broth and the duck, giblets, and neck to a wok. Add soy sauce, sugar, and remaining spices and taste broth for seasoning, adding sugar and salt as needed to balance.
6. Turn on heat to medium high and continually baste all portions of the duck (including the cavity).
7. Reduce the heat to low once the liquid starts to thicken. Continue to baste until liquid has reduced down to a thick syrup and duck has turned a rich, glossy brown.
8. Remove duck from the wok and let cool to room temperature before carving. Strain the sauce to remove spices.
9. Plate the duck with the remaining sauce on the side and enjoy a bite of Shanghai!
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