Stir-fried duck with pineapple and young ginger
Thinly sliced duck breast flash-fried with pineapple and tender young ginger — sweet, tangy and appetising, a home version of a classic Cantonese restaurant dish.
- 28 min
- Serves 2
- Stir-fry
- Easy
Why it suits you: Yin-deficient people are short of fluids, with a dry mouth, hot palms and restless sleep, and Liqiu's first autumn dryness makes moistening all the more important. Duck nourishes yin and the stomach, pineapple generates fluids, and a little tender young ginger whets the appetite and tempers the duck's coolness. Made without chilli or pepper, it's sweet, tangy and never drying.
Method
Prep 20 min · Cook 8 min- 1Remove most of the skin and fat from the duck, slice thinly against the grain and marinate with half the soy sauce, 1 tsp cornflour and a little oil for 15 minutes.
- 2Peel and core the pineapple and cut into chunks. Scrape and thinly slice the ginger, salt it for 5 minutes, squeeze dry, then soak in the vinegar and half the sugar for 10 minutes.
- 3Heat the oil and fry the garlic and the white parts of the spring onion until fragrant. Stir-fry the duck over a high heat until almost cooked, then lift out.
- 4Stir-fry the pineapple and ginger in the same wok for 1 minute, return the duck and add the remaining soy sauce, sugar and the ginger vinegar. Thicken with the remaining cornflour mixed with water, toss in the spring onion greens and serve with rice.
Cautions
- If pineapple makes your mouth tingle, soak the chunks in lightly salted water for 10 minutes first; duck is cooling, so add extra ginger if you get loose stools.
Chef's tips
- Duck breast has a thick layer of fat under the skin — remove most of it so the dish isn't greasy; choose young ginger with thin skin and pink tips for the crispest bite.
The TCM view
Duck is sweet, salty and slightly cold, nourishing yin, supporting the stomach and promoting urination — the Mingyi Bielu says it 'replenishes deficiency, clears lingering heat and benefits the waterways'. Pineapple is sweet, slightly sour and neutral, generating fluids and quenching thirst; young ginger is pungent and slightly warm but mild, settling the stomach and balancing the duck's coolness. Sour and sweet together nourish yin without heaviness.
