I am a vegetarian for many years now, and I had my episodes with veggie-meat, tofu escalopes and fake ham. Most probably strange desires in the eyes of people who eat meat. However, there have been times when I missed neither the taste nor the texture of meat, but its way of preparation and the flavor of roasted protein – that’s how „steaks“ and „sausages“ came in. From time to time, I still love to re-invent some classic meat dishes with tofu, seitan or textured vegetable protein like Pasta Bolognese (which is easy) or „Boeuf“ Stroganoff (not that easy). But the days of convenient meat look- and name-alikes are gone.
However, there’s one exception that I can’t stand: mock duck. OK, there are two other ones: I fall for vegetarian Mortadella and vegetable ham every now and then as well. But let’s leave those ones aside (I will surely get back to it in autumn, that’s usually my fake sausage and ham time of the year) and turn to the false poultry.
It has been a long time since I last prepared this product from the Asian food store, but some weeks ago, it was time to do it again. I opened the can and was – like always – astonished about the look with its duck skin look-alike. I can imagine that some people love it for that reason and some people don’t. As a foody I don’t need this feature indeed, but when it comes to food shots I have a lot of fun with the vegetarian meat photography. Furthermore, I felt a tiny little bit like a rebel against the gourmet-from-scratch cause (I mean, we are talking about a processed product which I might better hide among my mediocre everyday cooking secrets…).
But what is mock duck like? Of course it doesn’t taste like duck, and indeed in Asia (where mock duck is very popular) people don’t think of it as a substitute but as a dish of its own. It has a nice, savory taste and a fibrous consistency that is quite different from tofu. I first had mock duck many years ago in one of the best Chinese restaurants in Berlin where it was served in a nice sauce but I don’t remember the ingredients. I gave it a homemade-try soon after with some funky take-any-spice-you-can-get-setup and could – of course – not reach the bench-mark. Next attempt was a curry, that was better already. Then I forgot about it for quite some time.
Some weeks ago, I finally took a close look at a Chinese cookbook “Die chinesische Küche leicht gemacht” by Kenneth Lo (the much nicer English title is “The Love of Chinese Cooking”) from the 1970ies that my father had given to me some years ago and which had been his favourite cookbook during my childhood. I still remember the flavors that filled the place on Sundays when he tried new recipes from this book – need I say how much it means to me? It presents many typical recipes by cantons and regions, and I found a very nice meat dish with fermented black soy beans and red bell pepper. I was thrilled, because a package of those beans had been waiting in my kitchen cabinet since two months already for a glamorous performance after I had been inspired by a beautiful wok dish (recipe in German language) at küchenschabe and immediately had bought it.
The combination with mock duck finally seemed to be an option – and it turned out to be gorgeous. But mock duck is nice as well when roasted purely with only some shallots and some pepper – that’s the re-entry to the world of mock duck that I chose before trying the version with fermented black beans (which taste adorably of salt, vanilla and soy sauce).
Here’s my recipe
This recipe is inspired by the recipe of “Roasted beef with bell pepper and black bean sauce” in the book mentioned above. To serve two people, open one can of mock duck. Let drain the pieces (there are many small ones in the can sometimes and few big ones another time) and dry with kitchen roll. Prepare the marinade: 1 teasp. tomato paste, 1 teasp. hoisin sauce, 1 teaspoon corn starch, 1 teasp. tamari, ground pepper. Carefully marinade the mock duck pieces with the sauce and put aside for 15 minutes.
Give 1 heaped tablesp. fermented black soy beans into warm water and leave in there for 15 minutes. Drain well. Clean 3 shallots and 2 red pointed peppers. Cut the shallots lengthwise into quarters and cut the peppers into nice squares. Cut a small piece of fresh ginger into fine stripes. Clean a handful of cilantro leaves and chop finely (I took basil because I had no cilantro at hand).
Heat sunflower oil in a pan at medium heat, add the ginger and roast gently for a minute. Add the pepper pieces and shallots and roast for a couple of minutes. Take off the pan and keep warm. Add some more oil, the mock duck pieces and the beans. Roast the pieces gently on all sides and deglaze with 1 tablesp. of dry sherry. Add the peppers, shallots and ginger again, add pepper to taste. Most probably you won’t need salt as the mock duck, the marinade and the beans come along with it already. Serve with cilantro (or basil or any other herb) and serve in the pan with some basmati whole rice. If you are inspired now to try some fals poultry you might also want to take a look at some Peking “duck skin” with pancakes (with the skin made of soy bean curd) at kochpoetin (recipe in German language).
Just another word about the mock duck as a product: Its quality is crucial for the taste and I would recommend to take a look at the ingredients to avoid additives. My experience is – so far – based on non-organic mock duck which is an exception to my habit to buy any protein product from tofu to textured vegetable protein only in organic quality. However I already detected an organic mock duck version and will give it a try soon – I hope it will have the same funky “skin” and great taste. Anybody out there who has exerience in that already?
Today’s Urban Shot
Today’s two photographs are about reflections in windows. Since Arne showed it to me, I see reflections everywhere…
Food with a View 
Gorgeous! It really looks like meat, how fascinating! And I am sure that it tasted delicious. You always come up with stuff I marvel about (and I spotted them black sy beans two months ago as well – they are still crowding my cupboard ;-)). We need to swap ingredients soon..
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Great that you like it and thanks a lot for the nice compliment! I am absolutely fascinated with the fermented beans ever since…
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fake meat for a real good meal – why not? I spotted mock duck just recently in a bio-shop and I wondered and wondered and stared and wondered what it would taste like. Couldn’t decide to buy it. Anyway. Yours looks very good and I would have loved to try it.
Diese Pöppel auf der “Haut” sind echt witzig. Kann man das auch knusprig braten?
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As far as I know, mock duck indeed has a strong tradition in Asia (like seitan dishes in general) as a treat of its own. I guess the fake meat name (and texture) of the product devide the western audience – some love it for this funny look and sound and some don’t for the same reason.
Ja, man kann die schön knusprig braten (auf dem Foto mit der “Ente” pur kann man das ein bisschen besser sehen als bei dem marinierten Gericht).
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30 years ago my mouth would have been watering facing this wonder- and tasteful looking mock duck. But nowadays I’m so far away from craving for false meat 😉 Probably I should forget all about compensatory in relation to your (or Eva’s) mock duck version and follow your description as a dish of its own – with its own savory taste. May be, one day, I’ll give it a try.
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Thanks a lot for the compliment about the look!
I guess the name and look of this product have two sides: to some people it’s the main reason to buy it and for some it’s the main criterion not to do. I can understand both sides, and I myself think of it as a product of its own like tofu or normal seitan (mock duck consists of seitan) with the additional playful gimmick of this nubby look. But the dish can be done with any other protein as well – the red bell pepper and black beans would surely look and taste very beautiful with white tofu. Especially those beans are among my new most wanted ingredients, I can strongly recommend to give them a try.
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I never tried mock duck – looks like I should give it a try 😉 What is it made of?
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Yes, give it a try if you like! Mock duck is made of seitan which consists of wheat gluten (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seitan). It is marinated with oil, soy sauce and sugar. The taste is a little bit salty and a little bit sweet and fits many different spices. You can handle it like tofu – roasting, stewing, barbecueing…
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Ok…..Seitan is something I know…..just produced my own some weeks ago and tried to cook goulash – I’m quite sure, bought mock duck tastes much better 😉
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You produced seitan? Gosh – that’s impressing!
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Interesting..never heard of mock duck, but will surely look for it in my asian market! xoMelissa
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If you find it and give it a try, I will be happy to hear how you will like it!
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Lovely recipe! I love the pan, Hard to believe that a beauty like is still on my wish list.
x Claudia
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Thanks!
Hope your wish for such a pan will be fullfilled soon! I don’t want to miss it any more (and I’m in search for more iron cookware as they have such great cooking qualities and just look too gorgeous).
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Oh, das will ich schon lange mal probieren, aber ich finde keine “Mock Ducks”. Eigentlich bin ich nicht so der Fan von “Fleischersatz”, aber diese Veggi-Ente find ich, hm, irgendwie seltsam faszinierend, dass ich das auf jeden Fall mal essen mag 🙂
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Mir geht das ähnlich, von gelegentlichen Anwandlungen abgesehen bin ich kein Fake-Meat-Fan, aber diese “Ente” hat einfach was Eigenes. Du bekommst sie in Asia-Läden und in größeren Bio-Läden.
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Looking at your pictures its hard to find the mock in that duck 😉 Really gorgeous! I`ve never tried saitan or mock duck. Does it have the same texture/consistency like tofu?
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Thank you! Seitan is quite different from tofu – it is not that soft and it has a slightly fibrous texture.
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Maybe I should just give it a try. I really cant eat tofu. It sort of has the phenomenon to expand with every chew 😉
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Funny tofu description ;-). Maybe you will like saitan better, it’s worth a try.
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Claudia – it’s not impressing….I had a pack of wheat gluten that I had bought for baking. I did not need it anymore ad found a quick and easy recipe to produce Seitan. That was impressingly easy. But I competely messed the Goulash-recipe 😦
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I would be very interested in your seitan recipe! Is it on your blog (maybe I overlooked it)?
What a pitty with the Goulash. It’s always disappointing if a recipe doesn’t work – but sometimes it can be a source for kitchen humor as well ;-).
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It’ not on the blog – because the you really could not eat the goulash. I was in a hurry and cooking time was too short. You can find the seitan-recipe here:
http://valentinas-kochbuch.de/rezept-von-katharina-bretsch-curry-seitan-gulasch/
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Thanks a lot for the link! Seitan sounds more easy to do than I thought.
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I used to live with a vegetarian boyfriend in Sydney, and there is a good Chinese vegetarian restaurant that has a variety of mock meat dishes. I had fake chicken, fake beef, fake oyster, etc. I couldnt believe that they were fake. They tasted good and that is why we went there so often. Good old days….
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Fake oyster, wow! I would love to know how that tastes. Your description confirms what I read and experienced myself: To Asian people (and thus restaurants), fake meat is totally normal.
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I’ve had mock duck in restaurants, enjoying it a great deal, but I’ve not tried it at home. Your recipe, Claudia, looks very yummy and inspiring.
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Thank you, Susan! I had my first mock duck dish in a restaurant as well, and I was curious if I could manage to do something with it at home…
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