Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

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How to Make Delicious Duck Soup in under 30 minutes!

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How to Make Delicious Duck Soup in under 30 Minutes is the answer for a Friday night dinner! All made in one pot. If you’re not familiar with my Wok Star approach to cooking yet, I don’t use recipes or measuring, so this One Dish Delicious Duck Soup is a perfect example of that approach. Once you get this process down, you can use any protein or vegetables to make this one pot soup dinner!

Steps for One Dish Delicious Duck Soup in under 30 minutes!


Here’s a simple process…

Use whatever vegetables you have!

Start with your favorite stock. I use Costco Kirkland Signature Chicken Stock or Trader Joe’s Miso Ginger Broth.

Season soup…
Dash of San-J tamari, sprinkle of medium drinking sherry and white pepper and squirt of lime or lemon juice.

Add vegetables…One type of vegetables at a time.

Daikon takes most time, it gives a wonderful, sweet flavor.

Mustard greens. I was so annoyed, I overcooked them cause so focused on taking photos & videos! See how color is not bright green. I should have scooped out all the vegetables and put in soup bowls.

Enoki mushrooms & shredded ginger. Fresh ginger is readily available, cheap and is one of two main ingredients I use in most of my cooking. The other is garlic. You don’t need to peel it, just wash and slice thin, then shred. A thumb size is all you need, it can be quite “spicy”, otherwise.

For health benefits of ginger, check what functional doctor, Dr. Josh Axe says about the wonders of ginger!

Last, halve ready cooked duck legs and add to soup and warm through on low heat. Don’t overcook to prevent them getting tough and dry. Add in white sliced scallions.

Add duck to vegetables and reheat soup so it’s piping hot and pour over everything. Garnish with chopped green part of scallion. Done!

Best served with kimchi, this is radish kimchi by Angry Booch I get from Legion Park Farmer’s Market in Upper Eastside Miami or order online.

ENJOY! Do you have a similar one pot soup dinner you like to make? Share with us.

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Delicious Duck Soup in under 30 Minutes!

Dream Dish: Steamed Ribs in Brown Bean Sauce

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Do you ever dream about a dish you like?  For me Steamed Spare Ribs in Black Beans is one of them. It’s a mystery to me why it’s only served as a dim sum lunch item and never on the dinner menu?  

Addictive Dream Dish! Every riblet is so tender and tasty.

Note: I have an Amazon affiliate store for those who cannot get seasonings and products easily. I will get a fee when you click on these links.

This is what makes being a Wok Star so fun, because we don’t follow rules, we swap out ingredients and often get better results than the original dish PLUS get a nice surprise! 

When I came across pork riblets at Costco recently, I immediately thought of making Steamed Spare Ribs in Black Beans for dinner. 

Here’s video as promised, https://youtu.be/Mdwo742mmDg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mdwo742mmDg

About Pork Riblets
I’ve only seen pork riblets at Asian supermarkets and Costco only has St.Louis Ribs, not Spare Ribs which have more marbling. If your market or Costco don’t have riblets option, tell butcher to cut ACROSS the ribs to bite size chunks. It’s more versatile, you can make so many kinds of stews, soups and curries. I’ll share more soon.  

The secret to getting these little pork riblets tender is to steam long and on low heat in your wok. Yes, another way of using your cast iron wok. Choose a dish that’s wide and can hold some sauce! 

About Brown Beans
Steamed Ribs in Black Beans are typically made with fermented black beans but I didn’t have any and I find they are too salty and overpowering. Don’t confuse these fermented black beans with the Latin Caribbean Frijole.

The Koon Chun Brown Bean Sauce I use are more mellow and easier to prepare. They come ready mashed in a saucey consistency. This is the same sauce that comes in your Wok Star Kit. I also use this sauce in my cooking class to poach Tilapia and it’s always a big hit.

NOTE: Fermented Black Beans come in a sack and will take you a year to get through them, ha, ha. They have to be rinsed and mashed. If interested in its origins and want to try them, Chef Norman Van Aken does a great job explaining.

What to pair with?
Because Steamed Ribs in Brown Beans has quite strong flavors, it’s best to pair with a simple stir fry or blanched vegetable to complement each other. I chose Baby Bok Choy and brown rice, yum. My hubby raved about my traditional Chinese dinner, a rather rare occasion! He slurped down all the sauce with rice.

Here’s how to make this dish so you can have it anytime, it’s SUPER EASY and what a WINNER..

Serves 2 
Ingredients:
6 ribs cut across
2 scallions cut diagonally

Brown rice 

Ribs marinade:
TSPC…
Koon Chun Brown Bean Sauce
Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce
Toasted Sesame Oil
Garlic and Ginger Chopped 

Vegetable:
6-8 Baby Bok Choy bunches, split lengthways
Garlic and Ginger thwacked
Avocado Oil

Seasoning:
San-J Tamari
Medium drinking sherry wine (from your local supermarket, NOT sherry vinegar)

Method:

  1. Start with cooking brown rice.
  2. Marinade ribs in wide dish.
  3. Put steamer rack OR pair of wooden chopsticks in your wok, add water to just reach top of rack.
  4. Put dish of ribs on rack and close with wok lid, switch stove to high. As soon as water boils, switch to medium low. Check every 15 minutes and add more water if needed. 
  5. After ribs finish steaming, sprinkle chopped scallions and cover to keep warm. Remove rack and empty any water. Wipe wok clean and dry.
  6. Start with stir frying Bok Choy with a squirt of avocado oil and garlic and ginger. Add a little water and cover with lid. When Bok Choy is tender, drizzle San-J tamari and sherry and squeeze of fresh lime or lemon. Done.
  7. Zap steamed ribs if needed.

ENJOY! 

Garlic & Ginger (aka G&G)
Start with TSPC; add Koon Chun Brown Bean Sauce, Kadoya Toasted Sesame Oil and Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce.
Use metal or bamboo rack to set dish of ribs. In my video, I show how to use a pair of wood chopsticks set apart to balance the dish. Do NOT use disposable wood chopsticks.
My wok lid is stainless steel but very light.
TA DA! Taste better than it looks. You’ll want to drown your rice in this sauce!
Look how simple this Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry is!
Split Bok Choy lengthways, they’ll cook faster!
Self Explanatory! But PLEASE use AVOCADO OIL instead of Grape Seed Oil.
Fry Bok Choy with avocado oil, garlic & ginger, add a little water and cover with lid. When tender, sprinkle San-J tamari, sherry, squirt of lime juice, DONE!

Dreamy, Creamy Curry Coconut Seafood Soup

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I love challenging myself to come up with a dish using ingredients I already have!  And this Dreamy Curry Coconut Seafood Soup came about after my first attempt at a dinner party with this one-dish soup.  It is so fast, making it a super weeknight dinner!

Some helpful notes…
Use the same technique as with stir frying, cook each vegetable SEPARATELY as they don’t cook at the same rate. 

Use a wide shallow bowl, I got these beautiful orange ones at West Elm and they are perfect for presenting any dish. My new favorite bowls. I have them in white and gold because they ran out of orange.

Use WHATEVER vegetables you have, that’s the beauty of being a Wok Star! None of my cooking is about specific ingredients. 

Use a good brand of curry powder, it makes a world of difference, don’t use curry sauce!   I love Baba’s from Malaysia, a brand of curry powder my mom introduced me.

Start with 1 tablespoon for 3 bowl pot which is what I did for 2 people. Everyone has different taste profiles, so adjust according to how spicy you like it.  Just know when you add coconut milk, it will dilute the spiciness, so adjust after that as well.

This dish was originally inspired by a Curry Shrimp soup I loved at Lillikoi Organic Living in South Beach. If you ever get a chance, pop in there for their version.

When you like a dish at a restaurant,  claim it for yourself, put your spin on it and use what you like and expand on it. That easy, that’s what being a Wok Star is all about. It’s more about the cooking PROCESS than specific ingredients and measurements.

This post is about shifting your cooking mindset…
Cooking is about FLAVORS, TEXTURES AND COLORS, in that order. If you focus on those, everything else will fall into place. I repeat this a lot in my cooking class. Keep practicing and the process will become second nature.  And when that happens, you’ll look forward to CREATING instead of avoiding cooking because it’s drudgery. 

What makes cooking EASY is if you stock some basics then you’ll be able to create some pretty fantastic dinners! This brings me to a much needed blog on stocking basics, that’ll be next. 

Dreamy Curry Coconut Seafood Soup: shrimp, salmon with snow peas and mini sweet peppers. 

I poached salmon and shrimp ahead and reheated broth to pour over when guests arrived. It worked out so well, all about the planning.

Snow peas, mini multi colored sweet peppers and scallions. Crunchy textures and added a pop of color.

Here’s a step by step for Dreamy Curry Coconut Seafood Soup…
Ingredients:
Salmon cut into big chunks
Shrimp
Brussels Sprouts
sweet corn
mini sweet peppers
G&G
Scallions

Flavorings:
TSP (tamari, sherry, pepper white)
Curry powder (see note above)
Coconut Milk

Garnish:
chopped scallions
chopped Cilantro
Lime wedges


Method:

    1. Start by using the bowl you will serve in as a measuring vessel for the broth and add 1 extra bowl because broth tends to boil down over time.
    1. Next, add flavorings to broth: G&G;  TSP and curry powder, mix well.
    1. Poach tilapia on slow simmer so they don’t break. Use slotted spoon to transfer to serving bowl.
    1. Poach shrimp till just pink, spoon around tilapia in bowl.
    1. Blanche SEPARATELY Brussels Sprouts, sweet corn, sweet peppers in boiling broth and take out with slotted spoon and place around seafood in bowl.
  1. Reheat broth to rolling boil. Depending on how many guests you are feeding (1 can of coconut milk for more than 4 people), I only put in about 4-6 tablespoons of coconut milk for 2 of us so it’s not so rich and heavy.

Present garnishes in separate bowls on a nice tray with a flower arrangement.

Garnishes:

  1. Put garnishes in separate bowls in case guests don’t like a certain one (I learned that one!)
  2. Squeeze lime wedge over your soup, lime is amazing, it helps to ‘wake up’ all the flavors and make them shine and accentuated. However, don’t overdo it because then it becomes too sour and ruin the other flavors. You can also swirl in some coconut cream. Sprinkle chopped scallions and cilantro for a complete fresh flavor blast.
  3. I’ve now added my new fav find…Crispy shallots or Crispy Red Onions from Asian market. They have NO MSG or processed chemicals, only fried in either soy bean oil or coconut oil. 

I remember my mom taught us how to shallow fry shallots in oil. They are sprinkled on many dishes in Malaysia especially noodle dishes, they give a nice crunch and superb flavor, salivating just thinking about these, ha, ha. Peeling shallots and cutting them thin, then frying is so much work, I was elated when I discovered them already fried in a jar from the Asian market.

There is nothing more rewarding than hearing your hubby say how much he enjoyed my Curry Coconut Seafood Soup, dreamy and creamy. 

Now, dream up your own version and share with us in COMMENTS below or ask me questions!