Slow-cooked Lightly Smoked Duck Stuffed with Garlic, Lemongrass and Galangal

Yum, yum, yum and yum!!!!!

To make this amazing dish, known in Bali as Bebek Betutu, you lightly smoke a whole duck and then stuff it with Balinese Spice Paste (the same paste used previously for the Balinese Slow-Roast Pork) mixed with tamarind water and kecap manis. The skin of the duck is rubbed with a mixture of shrimp paste, tamarind water, salt and oil. The duck is slow roasted for 4 hours in an oven bag with some water to keep it moist. The end result is amazingly tender, moist duck that is not "fatty" at all and has a wonderful smoky flavour combined with the lovely flavours in the spice mixture. The spice paste can be eaten like a relish with the duck flesh. The cooking juices are served as either a soup or as a sauce to pour over rice. The juices also have a lovely balance of smoke and spice.

I served the duck with Fragrant Yellow Rice, Nasi Kuning, which is a common Balinese dish. The rice is cooked in coconut milk and flavoured with turmeric powder, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and galangal. It had a lovely light flavour which worked well with the duck.

Rick Stein suggests this duck dish may be even better than a perfectly cooked roast duck and I have to agree. It was pretty sensational.
Rating 9 out of 10.