Balinese Duck

For Lara's birthday lunch, we cooked the usual meat - a chicken, some pork and half a leg of lamb in the Weber. In addition, we also baked a duck. The inspiration came from the "Food Safari" program on TV the other night. I found a "Braised Balinese Duck" recipe in my Ken Hom cookbook that resembled the dish we saw on TV, there was no excuse not giving it a try!


(Husband marinating the duck)

It was relatively painless gathering the ingredients - ducks was booked and picked up from the local butcher, the other ingredients from our local Chinese grocery store and supermarket. I ended up doing a couple of trips because I kept forgetting one or two things on the list.

Husband made a spice paste in the food processor as per instructions the night before. Prawn paste, lemon grass, chilies, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and ground turmeric were some of the ingredients used. The paste was simmered over low heat before rubbing it generously over the duck. You can apply the paste before cooking as the recipe says but we wrapped the duck in the marinade overnight because it was easier this way.


(It tasted nicer than it looked!)

There was a lot of lovely juice in the foil after cooking. The meat was tender and very aromatic. We could probably process the paste longer and smoother next time so there is no stringy bits. It was quite a popular dish. It was fun trying something different!