Smoked duck ‘n’ soba

Serves 4 Starters and mains

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Method

You will need a smoking gun and wood chips of your choice, such as cherry or apple. Available for about £60 from souschef.co.uk or Lakeland. Shop many of the ingredients below online or find at Japanese grocery stores.

To start, make your duck stock. Place the duck bones or necks in a large pot, together with the kombu, spring onions, ginger slices, garlic, dried shiitakes, and orange zest. Pour over enough water to cover (about 9 litres). Place the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Skim off the scum from the surface, lower the heat, and simmer for 3 hours.

Next add the bonito flakes and increase the heat to medium-high. Bring the stock back to a boil, then immediately turn off the heat, and let the bonito sink. Taste the stock, and season with salt. Strain twice through a fine sieve, then cool and refrigerate if not using right away.

Next prepare the duck. Using the tip of a sharp knife, score the skin of the breasts diagonally in a crisscross fashion without cutting into the flesh. Season the breasts generously all over with salt and black pepper.

Heat a large frying pan, ideally one with a spout, over high heat until smoking hot. Carefully place the duck breasts skin-side down into the pan. (The skin should sizzle immediately upon contact with the pan; if it doesn’t, the pan isn’t hot enough.) Don’t overcrowd the pan; if necessary, cook 2 breasts at a time.

Once the duck is in the pan, lower the heat. Once fat starts to render from the skin, carefully lift and tilt the pan and pour out the fat into a bowl to cool down before discarding. Keep rendering the fat from the duck skin and discarding it for about 7-10 minutes. Keep the heat low enough so that the flesh doesn’t cook. When the skin looks mostly rendered and has shrunk to half its original thickness, transfer the breasts to a plate or tray, placing them skin-side up.

Now you’re ready to smoke the duck. Place the breasts in a non- reactive container. Stick the smoke gun’s nozzle inside the container and tightly cover the opening with foil so that no smoke can escape. Prepare the smoke gun according to the manufacturer’s instructions and smoke the duck for 10-20 minutes, keeping the container covered. Periodically lift the foil and check the smokiness. If you don’t smell very much smoke, keep smoking the duck breasts. When done, remove the breasts from the container and refrigerate until ready to cook.

Now make the tamago omelette. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the salt. In a separate small bowl, combine the dashi and cornflour and stir to dissolve. Add the soy sauce, sugar and a good grinding of pepper to the dashi mixture, then add this to the egg and beat until just combined.

Heat a non-stick frying pan (or a Japanese rectangular egg pan, if you have one) over low heat. Pour in the oil, swirling it around. Use a folded square of paper towel to soak up the excess oil; set this aside to use later. Drop a small amount of the omelette mixture into the pan and cook it. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

When ready to cook the omelette, wipe the pan with the oiled paper and keep the pan on low heat. (A pair of chopsticks is the best implement to use when making the omelette.) Pour just enough egg mixture into the pan to coat the bottom. Once the bottom has set but there is still plenty of raw egg mixture on top, start rolling the omelette from the side of the pan that is closest to you. Roll about 6mm of the omelette, then let the rolled part cook through completely so that it sets and sticks together. Keep rolling in this way, 1cm at a time.

If the egg cooks through too quickly and there isn’t enough raw mixture in the pan to act as an adhesive, add a few drops of raw egg mixture to seal the omelette as you roll it. Once the omelette is completely rolled up, draw it back to the side of the pan closest to you. Wipe the rest of the pan with the oiled paper again, and pour more raw egg mixture in to just cover the base. Lift up the cooked, rolled egg and let the raw mixture run under it. Start rolling again exactly as you did before, this time rolling the mixture around the previously cooked egg. Repeat with the rest of the egg mixture. Transfer the omelette to a plate and set aside.

Next, bring a large saucepan of water to a boil for the soba. Reheat the duck stock in another large saucepan and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Meanwhile, finish cooking the duck. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat and add 1tbsp of vegetable oil. When hot, place the duck breasts into the pan, skin-side down. When the skin is crisp and well browned, flip the breasts over to the flesh side. Reduce the heat to low and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the duck meat is cooked to medium and reads 63C/145F on a digital thermometer. Transfer the duck breasts to a clean chopping board and leave to rest for 5-7 minutes.

Cook the soba in boiling water according to the packet instructions minus 1 minute of the stated cooking time (this is to avoid overcooking the soba during plating). Drain the noodles and divide equally between four deep soup bowls. Thinly slice the duck meat and the tamago omelette. Pour the hot soup over the noodles, then arrange the duck slices and tamago on top, followed by the matchsticks
of yamaimo.

Finally, garnish with the orange zest and spring onions. Serve along with a small bowl of shichimi togarashi for sprinkling on top.