Stir-Fried Thai Rice Flake Noodles with Duck

Sometimes after I have a particularly delicious meal I start thinking about how I could make it at home, or at least incorporate some of the flavor profiles and combinations of ingredients into what I make at home.  Some dishes I take one bite of and know that they are so far out of my league that it's not even worth trying.  That happens a lot in NYC because we run into all sorts of situations where there are ingredients I just know we can't find, or we don't have an immersion circulator or any of the other tools necessary to test out some of the more molecular gastronomy-influenced dishes at home.  This dish from Thai Market (they called it Kui Teiw Kua Ped) was one that I knew I couldn't replicate exactly at home because I just don't have that much experience with Thai cuisine and this was a Thai dish that I had never tasted or seen before (or since for that matter).  So how do you replicate that?  All I knew was that the dish had flat rice noodles, shredded piece sof duck, egg, beansprouts, red onion, and scallions.  I want to say that there were some other greens mixed in, but I could be remembering incorrectly.  The sauce was savory and a little on the sweet side, with just a hint of spice.  And they served the noodles with either a lime or lemon wedge for some brightness.

So I picked up some Thai rice flake noodles from Bangkok Center Grocery, some Chinese flowering chives from Hong Kong Supermarket, defrosted some duck breasts, and tried to make a variation on the Thai Market noodles.  So no, these noodles weren't exactly like the ones at Thai Market, but they were a pretty good variation thereon.  Alex and I both really liked them.  They had a surprising amount of peanut flavor given that about 1/2 cup of chopped peanuts were added in at the very end and there were no other peanut or nut components to the dish.  I thought that the balance of ingredients to noodles was perfect - each bite had some noodles and then some veggies or egg or duck.  I hate it when you go to a Thai restaurant and order pad thai and you end up with a plate full of noodles, a little egg, 3-4 shrimp on top and that's it.  I like my stir-fries to be more substantial and varied than that.  Here we succeeded perfectly.  I might play around with the marinade and sauce ingredients a bit, just to see what happens, and try out normal rice noodles instead of rice flakes, but I think that this basic recipe was really good.  So I can consider this attempt at replicating a dish at home a success.

Recipe after the jump!


Stir-Fried Thai Rice Flake Noodles with Duck
INGREDIENTS:
1-inch piece ginger, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup light soy, plus 2 tbsp, separated
5 tbsp vegetable oil, separated
2 duck breasts, fat and skin removed, cut into bite size pieces (roughly 1-1 1/2-inch pieces)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten, separated
8 oz dried rice flake noodles, cooked according to package instructions
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 fresh Thai chili, seeded and thinly sliced
4-6 oz tatsoi or baby spinach
8 oz dried rice flake noodles, cooked according to package instructions
2 cups Chinese flowering chives, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp lime juice
lime wedges
sriracha


Mix ginger, garlic, honey, 1/4 cup soy,  and 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a medium mixing bowl.  Add duck.  Toss to coat.  Set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.


Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok over medium heat.  Swirl to coat.  Once the wok is hot, add one beaten egg and s&p.  Cook egg until it sets into a thin egg pancake, flipping once.  Remove from wok with a spatula.  Set aside on cutting board.  Repeat with remaining egg, adding more oil if the wok looks dry.  Slice egg pancakes into thin strips and cut each strip into quarters.  Set aside.


Increase heat to medium-high.  Drain duck pieces and add to the wok, reserving the marinade.  Stir-fry until all of the duck has browned, about 3-4 minutes.  Remove the duck from the pan with a slotted spoon.  Set duck aside in a bowl.  Add 1 tbsp oil to the wok and swirl to coat.  Add onions and stir-fry until lightly browned and softened, about 3-4 minutes.  Add chili, tatsoi and reserved marinade.  Stir-fry until the greens have wilted, about 2-3 minutes, then add noodles.  Continue stir-frying to combine ingredients and fully wilt the greens, about 2-3 minutes.  Return the duck to the wok, along with any juices in the bottom of the bowl.  Stir in chives, and most of the peanuts.  Add remaining 2 tbsp soy and stir-fry until everything is heated through, about 1-2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Add lime juice and cilantro.  Toss to combine.


Serve garnished with remaining peanuts, lime wedges and sriracha.