Mung Beans With Duck over Brown Rice

PaulaG's Note:

This recipe is rather time consuming the first time around due to making the duck stock. Afterwards it can be made in about 60 minutes. You can "kick it up" with bottled green pepper sauce, cornbread and green onions. The recipe for the stock, preparation of the beans and rice are included. The cooking time does take into consideration the time to cook and cool the stock.

• Total Time: 49 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 48 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

Duck Stock

• 5 lbs duck , with breast meat removed (back, neck, carcass, legs, no liver, skin removed)
• ½ cup dried onion flakes
• 2 medium carrots , scrubbed,trimmed and coarsely chopped
• 2 stalks celery & leaves , trimmed and coarsely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic , crushed
• 2 -3 tablespoons dried parsley
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 -3 leaves fresh sage
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 black peppercorns

Beans

• 1 cup of dry mung beans , preferably hulled
• 2 medium yellow squash , cut in half lengthwise and sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic , peeled and sliced thin
• 1 medium shallot , finely diced
• 1 medium yellow onion , peeled and sliced thin
• ½ cup shredded cooked duck
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon finely snipped fresh sage
• salt and pepper

Rice

• 2 cups brown rice

Directions:

1. The night before, place the ingredients for the stock in a large stockpot.
2. Cover by about 2 inches with cold water and bring slowly to a boil.
3. Skim any froth that forms on the surface.
4. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered about 3 hours.
5. Add water as needed to keep ingredients covered and skim as necessary.
6. Strain the broth into a large bowl through a fine sieve; gently press vegetable mixture to remove as much liquid as possible.
7. Discard the vegetable mixture, cool the broth and place in refrigerator over night.
8. Remove the meat from the duck carcass and shred.
9. Place the mung beans in cold water to cover and allow to soak overnight.
10. When ready to cook, rinse the beans in cold water.
11. If the beans were not hulled, rub between hands to remove hulls and discard the hulls.
12. Skim any fat from top of broth before using.
13. In medium pan, add 2-1/2 cups of duck stock and 1 cup of brown rice; bring to a boil, cover and cook until rice is done or liquid is absorbed, about 45 to 55 minutes.
14. In medium size pan, heat the sesame oil; add the sliced onion, garlic and shallot.
15. Cook until onions are lightly brown.
16. Add 2-1/2 cups of the prepared stock, beans and ground ginger, bring to a boil.
17. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
18. Add the duck meat and squash, cover and continue cooking an additional 10 minutes.
19. Remove from heat; add 1 tsp finely snipped fresh sage, salt and pepper to taste.
20. Serve over the cooked brown rice.
21. The left over stock can be frozen and used for another time.

Reviews

[Cindy Lynn]

I made the full amount of duck stock, freezing the unused portion (premeasured to make this recipe again), but reduced the beans and rice parts of this recipe to half for DH and myself. With the amounts of garlic, onion and shallots, I really expected this to be very flavorful, but DH and I were both surprise to find it to be quite bland. Next time, I think I will reduce only the amount of mung beans to half, while retaining the full amount of the other ingredients as the only thing I can come up with to explain the blandness is that the mung beans may have absorbed that much of the flavor (a neutralizing effect maybe?--this was my first 'mung bean experience'). We enjoy our summer squashes either raw or just slightly cooked so they are squeaky tender-crisp and found the 10 minutes called for by the instructions resulted in mushy squash. Next time, I will add the squash just moments before serving to attain that squeaky tenderness we enjoy so much. I also think we will increase the amount of sage substantially. As the recipe stands, it would make an excellent side for any extremely powerful main courses, which are sometimes difficult to avoid conflicting with and often enhanced by more neutral sides as accompaniments.