Umeboshi, Easip Woods, Ginger Ale & Duck Thai Mex
Recipe, Food, Styling & Photo: Oliver Schwarzwald
Salty plum in the drink, cocoa with the duck...
The starting point: duck, plum, salt and chocolate. The result is an exciting drink with a hint of salt and duck breast in a spicy sauce. True to the Thai Mex motto. Molé, a sauce with chilli, spices and unsweetened chocolate, is a Mexican affair while the other components are more Far Eastern. E.g. umeboshi plum. The meaning in Japanese is ume "plum" and -boshi "to dry", so literally "dried plum", also called salt plums. The ume fruits are pickled in salt and red shiso leaves. Although often called plums, these fruits are botanically more related to apricots. Umeboshi are especially popular in their country of origin, Japan. Here you can get them either on the internet or in macrobiotic or Asian shops. It is important that they are original Umeboshi fruits and not Chinese salty plums. They are extremely salty and also not so beautifully red. I use the salted fruit for the drink. The Molé spice mix from Ingo Holland works wonders in the strong sauce with demi-glace and lots of butter. Hot and chocolaty with the duck and the pak choi as a bitter note.
The drink goes with it. I boil down prune juice with lots of cardamom to about half, filter it twice and sweeten it slightly. In this case 50g also 400ml. To make the drink, stir 1 part plum syrup with 1 part Easip Woods with a plum over ice. The botanical of Easip is earthy, spicy and its sharpness give the drink the necessary counterplay to the sweet ginger ale alongside the salt of the plum.
In this combination, an extremely tasty starter that makes you want more. Perhaps as a main course. Then with some rice.
As a snack for 4 or main course for 2:
2 small flying duck breasts
salt, black pepper
3 tsp mole spice mix
3 tbsp white sugar
3 tbsp apple vinegar
3 tbsp demi glace
400 ml duck stock
50 g ice-cold butter
2 pak choi
salt
Pepper
Oil for frying
A straining cloth
Coriander / decoration
Chopped red chilli / decoration
Cut the butter into small pieces and put in the freezer. Preheat the oven to 120 degrees. Make a diamond-shaped incision in the fat side of the duck breasts. Season with salt and pepper and place in a cold frying pan without fat on the skin side. Fry over a medium heat until crispy. Then turn over for a few minutes. Cook for approx. 30 min. in the preheated oven, fat side up.
While this is happening, start the sauce.
Caramelise the sugar in a heavy saucepan and deglaze with the vinegar. Stir with a whisk so that the caramel dissolves completely. Add the stock, stir in the demi glace and the spice mixture and reduce by at least half. During this time, brush a little sauce onto the duck breasts 2-3 times with a brush and let them continue to cook. Then turn off the oven. Leave the duck breasts to rest in aluminium foil. Pass the sauce through a straining cloth and add the butter to the sauce. I then bind the sauce with a little starch. So that it works well as a snack and a lot of sauce sticks to the duck strips. Keep the sauce warm.
Quarter the pak choi and fry briefly in the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
Cut the duck breast and pak choi into strips.
Serve warm.
Enough for 4-6 drinks:
0.7 litre prune juice
20 capsules of cardamom
50g sugar
approx. 8 Umeboshi plums
Crushed ice
2 filter bags
Crush the cardamom in a mortar and boil down with the plum juice to. Boil down to approx. 450ml. Then filter twice. Heat again and stir in 50g sugar until completely dissolved. Chill.
For 4 drinks:
20 Cl Plum Syrup
20 Cl Easip Woods
2 Umeboshi Plums
4 Dashes Molasses Bitter
Crushed Ice
Ginger Ale
Stir the plum syrup, Easip and plums over ice until cold. Add the bitters. Fill glasses with crushed ice. Divide the drink between 4 glasses. Top up with ginger ale. Garnish each with a fresh plum. The plum gives off more and more salt over time, which changes the drink over time. Exciting!
