My Own Chinese Five Spiced Duck and Noodle Soup

After my visit to Ezard's last week and the amazing dumplings in duck broth I had for an entree, I've been in the mood for duck - I think it's knocked yellow curry from the top spot on my favourite foods list. So, yesterday my Mum and I put together Peking Duck for dinner for my Dad's birthday. As good as the Peking duck was, I won't be blogging about it, as I forgot to take my camera over to my folk's house. But, with the left over carcass of barbeque duck, I decided to attempt my own little version of Ezard's duck broth.
I literally have just finished my second bowl of the soup that I made and I was so impressed with myself that I had to write a post about it right away. I'm sure there's probably many recipes out there similar to this, but this is one I made up on the spot.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Chinese Five Spice Powder
1 Red Onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves Garlic, roughly chopped
1 knob Ginger, grated
2 Birds Eye chilies, finely chopped
1 Carrot roughly chopped
2 stalks of Celery roughly chopped
1 Duck carcass, most of meat removed
Handful of Thai Basil Leaves
2 bunches of Hakubaku Organic Udon Noodles (these are my favourite)
1 bunch of baby Bok Choi, stalks finely sliced, leaves kept whole
Light Soy sauce to season
Finely julienned snow peas to garnish


Method:
Gently sautee your carrots, celery and onion until soft in some olive oil.
Add garlic, chilli, ginger and lightly fry for a few seconds.
Add your Five Spice powder and fry for another few seconds, being careful not to burn the five spice
Add your duck carcass and cover with cold water.
Slowly bring to the boil and then turn heat down to a very gentle simmer, just so it's ticking over. Leave this to simmer for about 2 hours, making sure you remove any scum that may build up on the top of the liquid. You may also need to top up the water from time to time if it reduces.


After 2 hours have elapsed, you can drain the stock through a colander, sieve, etc, into a bowl, so you're left with the liquid. You don't need the bones, vegies, etc. However, you can pick the remaining meat from the bones, to add to your finished dish.
You can now taste your broth for seasoning and add some soy sauce as required.
Towards the end of the 2 hours, you can cook your noodles according to packet instructions and also steam your Baby Bok Choi above your noodles - the greens will only take a couple of minutes to steam.
Bring the drained soup back to the boil and add your picked meat and a handful of the basil leaves.
Place some cooked noodles in the bowl and ladle some of the meat, basil and broth, over the top.
Garnish with some of the chopped snow peas or spring onions.


You could could always add a few shitake mushrooms to the broth, but unfortunately I didn't have any on hand. Ok, so it's not quite an Ezard's dish, but hey, it's an Adski dish!