"I’m Puerto Rican. We like everything crispy!"
- Byte Modern Bistro is in DeLand
- Restaurant's dish fuses Asian and Puerto Rican influences
That's Chef Javier Melendez, executive chef at Byte Modern Bistro in DeLand.
"We like our chicharrón, so that skin's gotta be like chicharrón!" he said, referring to the duck breast sizzling up on a skillet.
For this Chef's Kitchen, we're making a crispy skin duck with buttered egg noodles.
"Any liquid you put on [egg noodles], they soak up," he said, adding that the dish is "really Asian-inspired."
A tip when preparing the duck on the stove is to finish it off in the oven.
"That’s a restaurant trick," he smiled. "Basically every restaurant finishes everything in the oven."
Let's cook!
Byte Modern Bistro's Crispy Skin Duck
Ingredients:
2 duck breast
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
3 tbl sugar
2 tbl ginger, grated
2 tbl minced garlic
2 chilies, shishito or Thai-sliced
1 tbl mustard
1 tsp sesame oil
2 scallions, sliced
10 oz wide buttered noodles
5 oz shitake, sliced
large bok choy, chopped
3 oz veggie oil
salt and pepper
Procedure:
For sauce, combine all of the ingredients except chilies, duck, mushrooms and bok choy. Set aside.
Set oven at 400.
Cook noodles to box instructions.
Set medium pan with oil at high heat.
When hot - but not smoking - drop duck skin-side down for 1 min.
Drop heat to med-high and cook for 4 more minutes.
Turn duck and drop in oven for another 6 mins.
In another hot pan, saute mushrooms and chilies for 1 min.
Add bok choy, saute another min. Add sauce and noodles. Heat another min.
To serve, place noodles on plate, reserve sauce, slice duck thin and place on top of noodles.
Enjoy!