Waterfall duck salad

With fresh herbs and a sweet-savoury dressing, this duck salad from Adam Liaw is full of flavour.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  2-4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Stream free On Demand

The Cook Up with Adam Liaw

series • 

Cooking

PG

series • 

Cooking

PG

Ingredients

• 2 duck breasts (around 200 g each)
• 1 tbsp raw rice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 tsp roasted chilli powder
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp pickled shredded krachai (optional) (see Note)
• ½ red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 spring onions, thinly sliced on a sharp diagonal
• 1 Lebanese cucumber, thinly sliced into half-moons on an angle
• 5 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 bird’s eye chilli, thinly sliced (optional)
• ½ cup each picked mint and coriander leaves
• ¼ cup picked Vietnamese mint leaves

Resting time: 5 minutes

Instructions

1. Place the duck breasts skin-down in a dry frying pan, then place the pan over medium heat. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, until the skin is well-browned and a lot of the fat has rendered, then flip and cook for a further 3 minutes. Remove the duck to a warm plate to rest for about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, toast the rice in a dry medium saucepan and heat over medium heat, swirling constantly for about 5 minutes until the rice starts to pop and gives off a toasty aroma. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and grind to a coarse powder. Combine half the rice powder (reserve the rest to serve!) in a bowl with the fish sauce, tamarind paste, lime juice, chilli powder and sugar.
3. Once the duck has rested, add the krachai, onions, cucumber, tomato and chilli (if using) to a large bowl, then add the picked herbs. Thinly slice the duck, then add the slices to the bowl and toss everything together. Transfer to a serving plate and serve immediately, scattered with a bit of the reserved rice powder.

Note

Krachai is a root related to ginger and turmeric. Find it at Asian grocers.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.