Duck and ginger broth

Serves 4

(Jason Lowe)

I love the cleanliness of fresh, fragrant, Asian-style broths. You can also blanch the duck skin and crisp it up in some oil to make delicious duck scratchings. Black fungus is available at Asian supermarkets.

For the broth

1 duck
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, halved
50g root ginger, roughly chopped
20 black peppercorns
2ltrs of chicken stock or 3 stock cubes dissolved in that amount of water

For the garnish

10-15g dried black fungus, soaked in cold water
8 spring onions, cleaned and shredded on the angle
A few sprigs of coriander (optional)

Remove the breasts from the duck with a sharp knife and either freeze or use for another dish. Remove the legs and pull away; remove the skin and halve the legs at the joint. Remove any skin from the carcass and chop the bones into pieces. Put the legs and bones into a saucepan with the onion, garlic, ginger, peppercorns and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for about an hour and a quarter, skimming every so often and topping up with water if necessary.

Strain the stock in to a clean pan, reserving the legs. Trim and cut the black fungus into even-sized pieces and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, remove the meat from the duck legs and shred or cut into chunks. Add the leg meat to the simmering broth along with the spring onion and fungus. Season, then ladle into bowls with the coriander (if using).