Duck Week: Duck Soup with Rice Noodles

Duck week item three: a cure for whatever ails you. Intensely rewarding rice noodles swimming in happy, healthy hot broth of homemade stock and ginger, with cabbage and slices of salty ham. As my mother would say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this soup. Plus, there is an intensely satisfying feeling of being able to use every part of an animal (in this case, the duck carcass for the broth) to its fullest extent.

I had originally made this soup straight as it was from the book, and let me tell you--it was good. But I saw the opportunity to play around a little more while I was home for Thanksgiving, so Peter and I did a little variation on the broth with a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it wound up resulting in one of the best soups I've tasted. I literally thought my mother was going to cry. I have tried to account for our variations as best I can in the recipe below. As with all the best soups, it's going to be up to you to keep testing and adding things until it's exactly to your liking. And this soup lends itself to infinite variety--stir fry some shrimp or pork with garlic, oil and broccoli (as we did over Thanksgiving) and you've got yourself something wonderful.

Duck Soup with Rice Noodles (adapted from Canal House Cooks Everyday)

For the broth:
1 raw carcass of a duck, including the back, wings, giblets, and any extra skin
1 medium onion, quartered
1 carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, coarsely chopped

For the soup:
8 cups duck broth (or, if your duck broth yielded less than 8 cups, a few cups of the best chicken broth you can lay your hands on)
pinch of Sichuan or black peppercorns
6 shiitake mushrooms
1 garlic clove, pressed
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
3 whole star anise
1/2 cup Chinese rice wine
rice vinegar
fish sauce
salt
1/4 head Napa cabbage
8 oz. flat, wide rice noodles
1/2 cup thinly sliced cooked ham
1/2 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
3 green onion bulbs, halved
handful fresh cilantro leaves
Chili sesame oil, for garnish

For the broth, put the duck carcass parts, onion, carrots, celery and 12 cups cold water into a large, heavy pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming any foam that rises to the surface, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer the broth, uncovered, for 4 hours. Strain the broth into a large bowl, discarding the solids. Allow the broth to cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until it is cold (the broth will keep for up to 2 days in the fridge). Skim off and discard the layer of white fat on the surface of the cold broth.

For the soup, toast the Sichaun peppercorns in a small skillet over medium-low heat until fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Put them in a large pot, along with the duck broth, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the ginger, rice wine, star anise and green onion bulbs. At this point, begin adding fish sauce and rice vinegar to taste. The vinegar should give the soup a bit of an edge--I think I used about 1/4 cup, and the fish sauce should impart a good, funky flavor (again, roughly 1/4 cup). Taste often as the soup cooks and the flavors begin to mellow, and add a little bit of this and that until the soup tastes perfect. Simmer for an hour or so, then fish out and discard the anise and the bulbs. Season with salt as needed.

Separate the sturdy ribs of the cabbage from the frilly leaves. Thinly slice the ribs and leaves, keeping them separate. Add the ribs to the broth and simmer until tender, 1-2 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water over medium-high heat until just tender, about 4 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold running water until cool. In a skillet, quickly toss the sliced mushrooms with garlic and a little hot sesame oil until they are tender. At the last moment, add the ham and toss a bit just to heat the ham up.

Divide the noodles, sliced cabbage leaves and scallions between 4 large, deep soup bowls, then ladle the broth into the bowls. Garnish with ham, mushrooms and cilantro, plus more hot chili oil to taste. Enjoy!