Red Cooked Duck with Kumquats - Kumquat #1

I'm doing another kumquat series this year. I love kumquats :)
Whenever I see kumquats, I think of Chinese New Year

But I'm not going to do desserts but more towards dishes.
This dish shall be my first.

Few months back I picked some kumquats from my tree and cooked pork ribs with it and it was delicious. And when I saw this recipe, it was a must try for me!

I was actually planning to use chicken. There are only 2 adults dining here nowadays and we can't finish up 1 duck. Cooking half a duck needs storage space for the other half. Since I was trying to clear my freezer now in anticipation for CNY, it's not a good idea to buy more duck. And luck was on my side when my SIL's inlaws asked me if I want any free range duck! I jumped at the offer and said, yes please, half a duck!

I made some changes to this recipe due to the availability of ingredients. I can't get haw powder, I used haw flakes. No red cook sauce, I made the seasoning for this dish from scratch with basic ingredients.

After cooking the dish, I took some up and packed it for my SIL's inlaws. They told me, the duck was very fragrant and nice. And the mother in law wants to replicate it.

In our opinion, the kumquat really helped to flavour the duck very well and masking it's gamey smell. My hubby and I really liked it and I hope you'll like it too

Red Cooked Duck with Kumquats
Recipe by: WendyinKK

600gm duck, chopped into small pieces
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 inch ginger, thinly sliced
2 stalks of green onions (white parts), sectioned
1 star anise
2 inches cinnamon stick
3 tubes of haw flakes
2 soup spoon of Shaoxing wine
2 soup spoon of Light soy sauce
1/8 tsp salt or as needed
10 kumquats
*1 soup spoon=20ml

1. Boil a pot of water and blanch duck pieces for 30 seconds. Drain.
2. Put blanched duck into wok and let it cook on medium heat until oil starts to ooze from the duck skin.
3. Put in ginger, spring onions, star anise and cinnamon stick. Gently toss everything around and let it cook until some parts of the meat start to brown.
4. Put in enough water to cover the duck. Put in wine, sugar, soy sauce and haw flakes. Bring it back to a boil and lower to simmer. Cover and let it cook for 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile half kumquats horizontally and remove the seeds with a toothpick.
6. After the duck has past 30 minutes, put in the kumquat halves and let it simmer for another 30 minutes.
7. Reduce gravy and let it caramelize a bit (if not it won't be red cooked, hehehehe), adjust taste with more salt and sugar if needed.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover