Tea-Smoked Duck Breast with Crispy Sticky Rice Risotto

Serves 10–12

For crispy sticky rice risotto:

• 2 cups sweet rice, soaked at least 3 hours
• ½ cup canola oil
• ½ cup mushrooms, small dice
• ½ cup shallot, minced
• ¼ cup garlic, minced
• ½ cup Chinese sausage, small dice
• ¼ cup dried shrimp, minced
• ¼ cup fish sauce
• ¼ cup sambal

Steam the rice in a double boiler with cheesecloth for 12 minutes or until the rice is completely cook through.

Heat a large saucepan with oil. Add mushrooms and caramelize; then add shallots and garlic, and sweat. Turn off heat; then add sausage, shrimp, fish sauce, and sambal.

Mix mushroom mixture with rice and let it cool. Heat fryer to 350˚F; add the rice mixture fry for 6–8 minutes or until crispy. Cool the fried rice risotto in a lined baking pan with paper towel.

For tea-smoked duck breast:

For Szechuan cure:

• 1 pint salt
• 1 pint Szechuan peppercorns

For smoking mixture:

• 1 pint green tea
• 1 pint flour
• 1 pint rice
• 1 pint sugar
• duck breasts

In a medium sauté pan, add salt and peppercorns. Heat until it releases smoke for 4 minutes; then cool.

Mix all the ingredients for the smoking mix. Sprinkle curing salt on the duck breast and let sit on a rack on a sheet pan in refrigerator for 24 hours. Then rinse the cure off duck and set aside.

Line deep sauté pan with rack, and on the bottom of the pan add couple layers of aluminum foil. Then put in 2 cups of the smoking mixture and turn to a medium high heat with a cover. After 6 minutes or when a nice amount of smoke starts to form, put duck on rack over smoke mixture and loosely cover. Let smoke for 5–8 minutes, until fragrant. Pull duck off let cool.

To serve:

Preheat the oven at 400˚F, and place the duck on a rack in a baking pan. Roast for 5 minutes. Take out of the oven and rest for 5 minutes, then cut and serve. Garnish with crispy rice risotto for texture and flavor.