Duck Soup (sans Groucho)

I roasted a whole duck earlier this week and wondered what to do with the carcass.  Somehow I got a wild hair for ramen. I'd never made ramen noodles before but it was much simpler than I anticipated - the broth actually took the most effort.

I could seriously eat this stuff on a daily basis - it's absolutely delicious!

The roast duck was crusted with coarsely ground coriander seed and it went into making my version of a Top Chef dish, which I will post next.

Start by making the duck stock: Roast a duck carcass for about 45 minutes in a 400 degree oven to get it browned. The cover the duck carcass with cold water in a large stock pot and add a quartered onion, a coarsely chopped carrot, a couple of cloves of garlic, a couple of star anise pods and a knob of ginger. Slowly bring the mixture up to barely a simmer and simmer it until it's a rich color and flavor - about 5 hours, skimming scum that accumulates on the top, throughout. (this will help you have a clearer broth.)

Then strain out the solids and strain again through a double layer of cheesecloth and your broth is ready to accept some rameny goodness!

For the ramen noodles, I used a recipe I found here at a site called No Recipes

His site requests that I don't repost the recipe and only share the link so out of respect for him, that's what I've done. I did alter the process, however and used a food processor instead of a mixer and found I needed to add 2 teaspoons of the kansui, as opposed to the one that he recommends. I also only let the dough rest in the fridge for about 4 hours as opposed to overnight.

To Serve the final dish, I cooked the ramen in boiling water for about a minute, drained and rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking process. You want your ramen noodles to remain firm, after it's in the broth so be careful to cook them less than you would normally cook pasta.

Separately I quick fried some broccolini in a little sesame oil along with some thinly sliced shallots and some sliced pork belly I had left from our previous adventure in pork. You could add some of the sliced duck but my leftover duck was long gone!

I heaped the ramen noodles in the bowl, covered it with hot duck broth, added a poached quail egg, the vegetables and the pork.  Sprinkle the top with chopped green onions and you have a delicious bowl of steaming goodness on your hands!

If you like ramen as much as I do, this is worth the effort. In a pinch, you could use a purchased broth that you jazz up with some asian spices but if you're serious about it - take the long road. You won't be sorry.