I know i'm not the first person to use this, however I still found this ingredient a bit gross, especially when it plopped out of the can!
Investigating further, it seems that this mock duck is fairly harmless having quite normal ingredients - gluten, soy, oil. Nonetheless, by using this ingredient i have probably ruined my reputation of being quite a decent cook!
So, unsure of how it would taste I decided to make a stir fry, using multiple ingredients to drown out the taste/texture of the duck should it be terrible. Now I am a terrible hoarder of sauces and condiments, the pantry and fridge are full of bottles and jars from all over the world. So I grabbed a few of my favourite asian condiments - chilli bean paste, ya cai, minced ginger and soy sauce along with some garlic, broccoli, eggplant, lotus root and spring onion and got ready to stir fry!
The result wasn't too bad! The duck had a 'meaty' texture but its flavour was fine. To be honest the predominant flavour was the chilli bean paste. It still creeps me out that the duck came from a can!
Just in case any of you have a penchant for mock duck i'll post the (rough) recipe below.
Bring on the next weird ingredient! Suggestions anyone?
Sarah xx
Mock Duck Stir Fry
1 can mock duck, drained and sliced
1 small eggplant, sliced into 4cm rings then quartered
1/2 head broccoli
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
8 slices of lotus root, halved
1 heaped tsp minced ginger
1-2 tbsp chilli bean paste
1 tbsp ya cai
4 stalks spring onion, sliced
Soy sauce to taste
Steam eggplant and broccoli until cooked (the eggplant will take much longer than broccoli.)
Heat a wok and add oil
Add garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds
Add lotus root, duck, chilli bean paste and ya cai, cook for 2 minutes
Add broccoli and eggplant, cook for 3-4 minutes until everything is cooked through
Add soy sauce and spring onion, cook for 1 minute
Serve
