Being Teochew (a dialect group from South China at the eastern side of Guangdong province), I am of course a fan of Teochew braised goose (潮州鲁鹅). Unlike Hong Kong, we don’t get much of goose in Singapore, so we settle for the second best aka braised duck. Like the popular Hainanese chicken rice, though perhaps a distant second, braised duck rice is available in hawker centre & food courts all over Singapore & quite cheaply, so there is not that much motivation really (according to my “worthwhile to do or not” philosophy) to attempt Hainanese chicken rice or teochew braised duck unless I can do this easily and produce something of equal or better standard than most I can get easily & cheaply outside.
Well, I have NOT found it yet for chicken rice, BUT I might just have got it for my braised duck!
This really a very simple recipe, as all I am doing is like using Tai Wah chicken marinate (大华鲁鸡汁) I bought for S$2.60 at Giant hypermarket, add water, an entire bulb of peeled garlic cloves (for 1/2 a duck - you can of course use the whole duck if you like, for me I only do 1/duck as my family cannot finish 1 duck & my group dinners include many other dishes so I also do not want to cook 1 whole duck which I did only on the occasion of the 23pax buffet), cinnamon sticks, star anise and bay leaves, and braise for 1 hour. voila!
Not much of a recipe really, but my cooking philosophy is always driven by taste (& of course texture & colour, presentation – in Chinese we say 色香味OR colour, fragrance & taste) – so I am no stickler to whether to cook something with herbs from scratch like I do for nonya curry chicken OR to use a premix as I do often for my favourite, favourite dish – bakuteh (肉骨茶). So long as my diners and I like it, and it is easy to make & repeatable, I am all for it irrespective whether it is done from scratch or with premix!
See my recipe & photos here=http://chefquak.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/399/