Duck Soup

Duck Soup

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Yeast-Free, Corn-Free, Peanut-Free
** Does contain gluten-free soy sauce

This very robust soup has a lot of wonderful flavour (many of the same spices used in the duck patties), but it is not a hearty (thick) soup. It can be used as an appetizer, or paired with gluten-free bread and a salad to make a complete meal.

This recipe is best made over two days. The first day, make the broth and cook the duck meat. The second day, skim the fat off of the broth (and discard), and continue to prepare the soup. This is a great recipe to make to use up all the left over duck parts after making duck patties (if you start with a whole duck).

Ingredients

1 duck, uncooked (or the leftover, uncooked parts from making duck patties will do)

Seasonings

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, coarsely chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped up

1/4 tsp peppercorns, whole

1+1/2 tsps sea salt (or to taste)

1/4 tsp cloves, ground

2" x 2" piece of fresh ginger, chopped into small pieces

1 tbsp soy sauce (gluten-free)

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Add near the end of cooking

1+1/2 tsp fennel seed, finely chopped or crushed (also called anise)

2 fresh plums, peeled and cut into thin slices

Duck meat

Just before serving add...

3 cups cooked rice (white or wild)

Method

Day 1. Cover the fresh (uncooked) duck meat with water in small stock part or large dutch oven. Bring the water to a slow boil over medium-high heat, skimming the foam off from time to time. When the water has boiled, turn down the heat to medium-low, and continue to simmer for 1 + 1/2 hours. The meat should be cooked through. Do not add sea salt to the water while simmering.

Cool the broth, strain the meat and bones out of it using a colander over top of a large bowl, and refrigerate overnight. Cool the duck meat and refrigerate overnight discarding any large bones and large pieces of skin/fat.

Day 2. Skim the cold, congealed fat off the broth and discard (unless you have another use for it). return it to a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, and all the other seasonings to the pot. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Strain the seasonings from the soup (using a colander and large bowl) and return it to the soup pot again.

While the broth is simmering, strip any usable duck meat from the bones, cut into bite sized pieces and reserve.

Add the reserved duck meat, plum slices and crushed fennel seed to the strained soup and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste the soup and adjust the seasonings if necessary.

Just before serving, add the rice to the pot. If you think you will have leftover soup, do not add the rice to the pot, place a little in each bowl before serving. The rice will soak up any leftover broth if left in it long enough (like overnight).