Bebek Penyet
Smashed confit duck with turmeric sambal & sticky rice
All the good stuff.
I recommend you cook this with confidence.
If you want more chilli or ginger or anything add it or take it away. Sambal is a great way to build your palette for delicious flavour.
Enjoy.
Ingredients
Marinade
2 duck legs
1 knob turmeric
1 stalk lemongrass
2 Fresno chiles
2 bird’s eye chiles
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 shallot, peeled
Handful of curry leaves (optional)
Fish sauce
Palm sugar
Flakey salt
Sambal
1 knob turmeric
1 knob ginger
1 knob galangal
1 stalk lemongrass
2 Fresno chiles
2 bird’s eye chiles
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 shallot, peeled
Handful of cilantro
Shrimp paste
Fish sauce
Palm sugar
Tamarind paste
Leftover duck fat
Sticky rice
Sticky rice
Water, for soaking
Method
Start by washing your sticky rice, then soak overnight or for at least a couple of hours if you’re short on time. When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C.
Make the marinade using a mortar and pestle or food processor. If you’re using the mortar, pound the hardest ingredients first (lemongrass, chiles, roots), then work your way toward the softer ones. You’re looking for a fragrant, cohesive paste.
Season the duck legs generously with salt and massage the marinade over them. This can be done right away, but an overnight rest will only make things better.
Place the duck legs skin-side down in a medium ovenproof pan and begin rendering gently over low heat. Once the fat starts to release, add enough rendered duck fat (or sunflower oil) to mostly cover the legs. Transfer to the oven and confit for about 1½ hours, until the meat is yielding and the bone begins to peek through.
While the duck does its thing, cook the sticky rice. A bamboo steamer or rice cooker is ideal, 20 minutes should get you there. If you’re using the stovetop, that’s fine too, but I’d swap to jasmine rice instead.
About an hour in, your kitchen should fragrant. Roughly chop all the sambal ingredients so they’re ready to pound or blitz.
Briefly remove the duck from the oven (it’ll go back in for the final stretch). In a separate pan, add a few tablespoons of the rendered, aromatic duck fat. Cook the sambal aromatics with the shrimp paste and herbs for about 4 minutes, until softened and deeply fragrant.
Transfer this mixture to a mortar and pestle or food processor and pound/blitz into a chunky paste. Season with fish sauce, tamarind, and palm sugar.
Once the duck is tender, crank the oven heat and return it for 5 minutes to crisp the skin.
Take the duck out, smash it gently with a pestle, and smear generously with sambal. Serve with sticky rice, crisp lettuce, cucumbers, or anything fresh and cooling.
Enjoy.
