After last week’s duck, I took home the carcass to make soup with. I very roughly followed a recipe for tteokguk, a Korean rice cake soup (that I have never had). That’s made with beef, and this isn’t, so this turns out to be a different thing. I didn’t do a lot of measuring on this one, so the amounts are mostly approximations, but if you follow along you can at least get an idea for your own next experiment!

Ingredients:

• 1 leftover duck carcass
• water
• 5 carrots, divided
• 1/2 onion
• 1 pound sliced rice cakes, soaked 30 minutes and then drained
• salt
• black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 5 green onions, chopped

Roughly chop three of the carrots and the onion half and combine them with the duck carcass in a large pot. Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering, and simmer for 4 hours, checking on it every 30-45 minutes to skim any gray gunk off the surface.

Strain the mixture, keeping both parts. Chill the stock in the fridge, and let the carcass cool until you can touch it without getting burnt.

Pick all the remaining meat off of the bones and keep that, while throwing out the bones, carrot, and onion.

Skim any fat that has collected on the surface of the stock and discard. Put the meat back in the stock.

Heat the mixture over medium heat. Add salt to taste. The stock will taste really pretty boring until you’ve reached the right level of salt, when it will suddenly taste like duck. You don’t actually need it to taste salty, just…ducky. Salt is a bit magical in how it amplifies flavors. Chop the other two carrots and toss them in, as well as a big pinch of pepper and the garlic.

Separate the eggs and add salt to both the whites and the yolks. Heat a pan over medium heat, spread some oil around the pan, then wipe off the excess with a paper towel. Turn off the heat. Beat the yolk/salt mixture, then spread it thinly and evenly in the warm pan. Let it cook for about a minute, then flip and let it cook on the other side for another minute. Remove from the pan and cut into thin slices. This isn’t something I’ve seen before, and I don’t think it worked quite perfectly because my stove is super un-level, but…practice makes perfect?

Bring the broth up to a boil, if it isn’t already. Take your rice cakes, which have soaked and been drained, and add them to the pot. Let the boil until they are all floating. Add the fish sauce, sesame oil, and egg whites beaten with salt, and stir in. Sprinkle the green onions on, and serve. I brought this to a potluck, so had it half cooked at home, then heated it and added the rice cakes at my friends’.

This thing’s gonna smell like fish sauce for the rest of eternity.

I really need to get some proper tupperware/a pot with a lid…

I really love the texture of these rice cakes, and the flavor of this soup was excellent.

The rice cakes are best, texture-wise, day of, but leftovers of this will still be delicious for a few days. I really loved this, and everyone else who tried it seemed to as well.

Duck Soup with Rice Cakes

• 1 leftover duck carcass
• water
• 5 carrots, divided
• 1/2 onion
• 1 pound sliced rice cakes, soaked 30 minutes and then drained
• salt
• black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 5 green onions, chopped

Roughly chop three of the carrots and the onion half and combine them with the duck carcass in a large pot. Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering, and simmer for 4 hours, checking on it every 30-45 minutes to skim any gray gunk off the surface.

Strain the mixture, keeping both parts. Chill the stock in the fridge, and let the carcass cool until you can touch it without getting burnt. Pick all the remaining meat off of the bones and keep that, while throwing out the bones, carrot, and onion. Skim any fat that has collected on the surface of the stock and discard. Put the meat back in the stock.

Heat the mixture over medium heat. Add salt until it tastes noticeably duck-y. Chop the other two carrots and toss them in, as well as a big pinch of pepper and the garlic.

Separate the eggs and add salt to both the whites and the yolks. Heat a pan over medium heat, spread some oil around the pan, then wipe off the excess with a paper towel. Turn off the heat. Beat the yolk/salt mixture, then spread it thinly and evenly in the warm pan. Let it cook for about a minute, then flip and let it cook on the other side for another minute. Remove from the pan and cut into thin slices.

Bring the broth up to a boil, if it isn’t already. Take your rice cakes, which have soaked and been drained, and add them to the pot. Let the boil until they are all floating. Add the fish sauce, sesame oil, and egg whites beaten with salt, and stir in. Sprinkle the green onions on, and serve.