Oritang (Spicy Duck Stew)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •7 to 8 quart heavy pot or Dutch oven
• •Fine-mesh skimmer or wide spoon for fat
• •Large bowl and whisk for perilla slurry
• •Kitchen shears for trimming duck fat

Instructions

1. 1

   Trim and blanch

   Ask the butcher to cut the duck through the bone into 10 to 12 pieces. Pull away the thick knobs of fat around the cavity and tail, but leave the skin on the meat; it carries flavor. Put the duck in a large pot, cover with cold water by 2 inches, bring to a boil, and boil 5 minutes. Drain, rinse the pieces under low running water to remove clinging scum, and wash the pot. This first water is not broth. It carries blood, excess fat, and the smell people wrongly think duck must have.

   After handling raw duck, wash the board, knife, sink, and your hands well before you touch the minari or any table garnish.
2. 2

   Simmer the duck

   Return the blanched duck to the clean pot with 10 cups water, the onion, radish, 4 smashed garlic cloves, sliced ginger, and 2 halved scallions. Bring to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer and cook 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, skimming foam and excess fat from the surface. Do not boil it hard. Duck tightens when bullied, and the broth turns greasy instead of deep.

3. 3

   Mix the seasoning

   While the duck simmers, mix the gochugaru, doenjang, gochujang, guk-ganjang, anchovy sauce, minced garlic, grated ginger, sugar, black pepper, and 1/2 cup hot broth in a bowl. Let it sit at least 10 minutes. That rest wakes up the chili and loosens the soybean paste, so the seasoning enters the broth evenly instead of floating in red clumps.

   There is only 1 tablespoon of gochujang here on purpose. Oritang should taste like duck, perilla, and minari, not like a pot of sweet chili paste.
4. 4

   Measure the broth

   Lift the duck pieces into a bowl. Strain the broth, discard the onion, radish, ginger, garlic, and scallions, then skim off the fat floating on top. Measure 8 cups broth back into the pot; add water if you are short, or simmer a little longer if you have much more. This measure matters because the perilla powder thickens by the cup, not by hope. Return the duck to the pot.

5. 5

   Stew the vegetables

   Stir the seasoning paste into the measured broth. Add the potatoes, parboiled radish greens or napa cabbage, and torandae if using. Simmer 22 to 28 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and a chopstick slides into the thickest duck piece without resistance. Keep the pot moving gently. The greens need time to give their flavor to the broth, but the meat should not be knocked apart.

6. 6

   Add the perilla

   Whisk the ground perilla seed powder with 1 cup hot broth from the pot until smooth, then stir the slurry back into the stew. Simmer 6 to 8 minutes, stirring along the bottom so the perilla does not catch. The broth should turn tawny and lightly thick, coating the spoon but still flowing. Taste before salting. Add the 1/2 teaspoon salt only if the broth needs it, then adjust in pinches.

7. 7

   Mix table sauce

   If you want the sharp dipping sauce often set beside rich duck, stir together 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon Korean mustard, 1 tablespoon hot broth, and 1 tablespoon chopped minari stems. This is for the meat, not the pot. Keep the stew itself balanced.

8. 8

   Finish with minari

   Add the remaining scallion lengths, perilla leaves if using, and the sliced chilies. Lay the minari across the top in a thick green raft and cook 30 to 60 seconds, just until the stems bend and the leaves brighten. Turn off the heat. Carry the pot to the table with rice, kimchi, and the dipping sauce. The minari goes in fresh at the end because it is not decoration; it is the clean edge that makes the rich broth possible to keep eating.

Chef Tips

• •Bone-in duck is the right cut. Boneless breast will make a soup, but not this stew; the bones give the broth body and the table gets the pleasure of working meat from the bone.
• •Use unsalted deulkkae-garu, ground perilla seed powder. Do not replace it with sesame seed powder and call it the same dish. Sesame is sweet and oily; perilla is earthy and thickening.
• •Minari is best in spring and good again from careful greenhouse growers in the cold months. If your market has none, watercress is the honest substitute, but add it at the same last moment and know that the wet-field flavor will be quieter.
• •A pressure cooker is a safe modern vessel here. After blanching, cook the duck with the broth aromatics under pressure for 35 minutes, then let the pressure release naturally and continue from the seasoning step. The shortcut is the vessel, not the final seasoning.

Advance Preparation

• •The duck can be blanched and simmered 1 day ahead. Strain the broth, refrigerate the meat and broth together, then lift off the solid fat before finishing the stew with potatoes, perilla, and minari.
• •The seasoning paste can be mixed up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature before stirring it into the broth so it dissolves evenly.
• •If starting with dried torandae, soak it overnight, boil 20 minutes, rinse well, and squeeze dry before adding it to the stew. Prepared torandae from a Korean market saves that work honestly.
• •Leftovers keep 3 days refrigerated. Reheat gently and add a fresh handful of minari at the end, because yesterday's minari will have given itself to the broth already.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 680g)