>> MING: Hey, Ming Tsai here with Simply Ming.

I have a fantastic special friend in the house, you may know her from Chopped, she's the judge Amanda Freitag, who's going to be cooking with me.

Amazing pedigree, she worked at Arpège in France, she worked at The Harrison, and she worked at Verbena.

Today she's going to cook duck, which is a hard meat to cook for some people, unless you know the secret.

She's going to be making a seared duck breast with a pine nut relish.

>> If we cut it, all the juices are going to run out, but if we rest it, they're going to go back inside.

>> MING: Yes.

I'm going to be making one of my grandfather's favorites: tea-smoked duck with a watercress apple salad.

But we're also gonna deglaze it with a little bit of our apple cider.

>> (chuckling): Oh yes.

>> MING: Oh yeah.

>> Don't use too much because I'd like more in my glass.

>> MING: You'd like to drink more, okay.

We're going to start us all off with a shishito caipirinha.

That's all coming up, right now, on Simply Ming.

♪ ♪ >> MING: Hi, Amanda.

>> Hi!

I'm so happy to be here.

>> MING: Nice to have you back in the kitchen.

>> Me...

I'm so excited!

>> MING: So psyched.

So we're going to start with a cocktail, as you know, just to loosen us up and cook some duck.

Have you ever been to Brazil?

>> No!

>> MING: Oh, you gotta go.

>> I wanna go!

>> MING: So good, their cocktail of their country is caipirinha.

>> Well I've had one of those.

>> MING: Right, which is made with cachaça.

Well, I'm going to do a charred shishito caipirinha.

>> I love charred shishitos, but I've never, ever had them in a cocktail ever.

>> MING: It gives it a nice vegetal, and the thing with shishitos is one out of ten are screeching hot.

>> That's the fun!

>> MING: And you can't tell.

So if you can give me six slices of lime, please.

I'm gonna just break a couple of these charred shishitos and put in about four in here.

If you don't have shishitos, you actually could use like a jalapeno, but that's going to be guaranteed spicy.

Only do a couple slices of the jalapenos if you're going to do that.

>> Right.

This is a nice balance because you get the flavor of the pepper and sometimes a little bit of heat.

>> MING: Exactly.

So lime... then sugar.

You need the friction of sugar, plus of course sugar gives you a little sweetness.

>> So did you put the whole pepper in?

>> MING: The whole pepper, seeds and all, 'cause we're going to strain it, and we're just going to muddle this, and muddle this, and muddle this.

So if you could do me a favor?

>> Yes.

>> MING: Fill those ice... ice those up for me.

>> Okay.

>> MING: And then you're gonna ice this glass for me too.

So ice me down.

>> That's a money shot.

>> MING: We're going to do four ounces of cachaça.

>> Okay.

That sounds like the proper ratio to me.

>> MING: Yeah.

This is an ounce and a half each, so that's three... there we go.

And that drink's done, it's that easy.

>> That's it?

>> MING: That's it, We top it off with a little bit of sparkling water.

Give it a good shake.

>> So you have the sugar, the acid, the pepper... >> MING: The pepper, that's it.

>> And the cachaça.

>> MING: The cachaça.

Cachaça's made from sugar cane, right, so it's a lot of sugar's going down in Brazil, really important to ice this down well.

Here we go, one more time, three's the charm.

(sniffs) Oh yeah.

>> Smell that.

(Amanda sniffs) Oh, my God!

You get the pepper, and the lime, but a little bit of smokiness too.

>> MING: I think this is going to be okay.

>> And look how pretty that is with the little pieces of pepper.

>> MING: I want to see the little bit, it's okay.

>> Right?

I don't mind that.

>> MING: No, cause you know why, cause the heat is in the seed, right?

>> Right, I like a little spice in my cocktail as well.

>> MING: Then we're going to just top it off just with a little bit of good sparkling water... like that.

>> Oh yeah... Well this looks like my new summer drink.

>> MING: There we go.

>> Oh!

>> MING: Oh!

>> You almost lost your lime.

>> MING: That was your lime.

>> That's your lime.

(both laughing) >> MING: You're the best.

>> Cheers!

>> MING: Cheers.

>> It's perfect.

>> MING: You like it?

>> I'm getting a tiny bit of heat... >> MING: Barely.

>> Little bit.

>> MING: Yeah, so we got...

I think we have one spicy one.

>> Oh, I love it.

>> MING: You like it?

>> Put a little more lime in there.

>> MING: Will this inspire you to cook duck?

>> Yeah, why not?

>> MING: Let's go cook duck, come on.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Quack, quack.

All right, Amanda, talk to me about your dish.

>> Okay, so we're doing a duck breast.

And I'm going to make a pine nut relish with a reduced white balsamic.

But... >> MING: Okay.

>> ...the reason why I'm doing this today is because I really want to talk about duck as something you can have for dinner.

>> MING: I was so happy when you picked it too because I love duck, as you can imagine.

>> Well, in my...

I would imagine, and I can't wait to see what you're going to make.

So obviously this is... >> MING: That's a double breast, right?

>> Double breast as it comes on the bird.

And the scary part is, is that there's a lot of fat.

But actually the breast meat itself is super lean.

And it's actually a myth about duck that it's so fatty.

Once the fat goes away it's actually quite lean and delicious.

>> MING: You are absolutely right.

>> So I'm just going to cut it in half.

And I'm going to trim a little bit of the fat.

But, for me, I would save this.

>> MING: Yes.

>> And I would make duck fat potatoes, or duck fat in my eggs, or duck fat fried rice... >> MING: Or cracklins, right.

>> ...or cracklins.

I'm just going to trim off anything that I think... >> MING: You keep the tender on or not?

>> You know, I like to eat that for me, that's my little prize.

>> MING: Okay, got it.

>> So I keep that there.

>> MING: It's like your chicken oyster.

>> Exactly.

But anything that looks a little too sinewy or bloody, I'll take off any veins, you know.

And if that's scary to the home cook, then just have your butcher do it for you.

>> MING: Right, and I'm going to say this right now: you do not cook duck to 160, not chicken breast.

That's where it's different.

That's how you cook it, you cook it like steak.

You want the medium rare, or rare, or med-well is fine.

>> I think that's the misconception that duck and chicken have the same scary poultry diseases.

>> MING: Yeah, not at all.

>> Not at all.

And of course you're going to get your duck from a local farmer, or somewhere really good where you get your other game meats.

What happens is we have to score the breasts a little bit.

So that the fat can render out.

Because when you put something like this in a hot pan, a protein in a hot pan, it seizes up.

So we want it to relax so it can get the fat out.

>> MING: You want a chiffonade on this?

>> Yes, and so we're going to use a little bit of sage in the relish.

>> MING: How many-- six leaves, eight leaves?

>> Just, you know, three or four.

>> MING: Three or four.

>> Sage is a strong herb, it has to cook, so I'm going to cook it in with the white balsamic vinegar.

And I just like sage, it's very rare, I feel like people only use sage during Thanksgiving time.

And it's such a great herb, and it's a harder herb, and it stands up to this duck.

>> MING: So, have to note-- and she's a pro-- she's cutting the fat, but she's not cutting the meat.

She's cutting just to the meat, right, and that's key.

Because once you cut the meat, then the meat starts cooking your rendering.

Right, but you gotta get it through the fat, and the reason you render is that all this great fat will then render off, right?

>> And I always say when people don't know how to cut birds, or meat, or they don't know how to butcher, sometimes the... when you're cutting the piece of meat, it kind of tells you.

All of a sudden you can see, and that's when you know where to stop.

>> MING: There's no little white plastic thing that pops out.

>> No, no, of course not.

So I've given it a nice score, and I'm going to give it a great seasoning.

Again, don't be afraid to season.

>> MING: Yes.

>> Season your meat, season everything as you go.

>> MING: You want some black pepper?

>> Yeah, black pepper on this.

And... start off by trying this as a special occasion dish.

And then when you feel more comfortable with it, have it for dinner.

And the best part is leftover duck breast is great for a salad-- something cold.

>> MING: Love it.

>> Okay, so I'm gonna go into this pan.

This pan is already on, it's on a medium heat, okay?

I always tell everybody when you put something in the pan... (sizzling) drop it away from you in case anything's gonna splash.

And you hear that sizzle, this sizzle is exactly what you want.

You want to hear, you want to know that this pan is hot, but not too hot, okay?

And I always say that, you know, in a restaurant kitchen we have 30,000 BTUs of gas.

You know, we use it, but at home, the home cook is so afraid to get that pan hot.

And once you get this technique down you can do it with chicken, you can do it with steak, you can do it with fish, you can do it on the grill.

Same thing, and I always talk about not moving it now.

You know, I think the novice cook would shake this pan right now.

Don't shake it.

>> MING: No, don't.

Oh God, please-- >> Let the heat recover.

>> MING: Explain why, explain why.

>> Because we put this duck in, it brought the temperature of the pan down.

>> MING: Yup.

>> Right, we need the pan heat to recover so we get that beautiful sear.

>> MING: And how long is that going to take at this heat?

>> I mean, this... this is probably going to take a good 15, 20 minutes.

>> MING: Yeah, I agree.

>> We want all that fat gone, we want crispy skin.

>> So we'll let that do its thing.

>> MING: Perfect, let that go.

Okay.

>> And then you've got the sage for me, so I'll talk a little bit about white balsamic, because I love it so much.

Everybody's familiar with balsamic vinegar, regular dark balsamic vinegar, made from grapes and a little bit of grape must.

But this is white wine, basically.

>> MING: Right.

>> A little bit of Muscat grape is in here.

I love it because it has this great sweetness to it.

>> MING: Yeah.

It'll get syrupy, right?

>> When it cooks it gets syrupy.

So it creates its own sauce.

So we're going to add the pine nuts, we're going to add the sage.

And then for the pine nuts... >> MING: May I make one note?

>> Yes.

>> MING: Stainless steel, you have to use stainless steel when you're reducing acid.

>> And we're going to toast the pine nuts.

Now pine nuts are really nice and fatty.

I love the texture of them.

>> MING: I love pine nuts.

>> That's why they're in pesto, they have that great creaminess.

So...

I toast almost all of my nuts on top of the stove.

When you put them in the oven, it's out of sight... >> MING: They burn.

>> ...out of mind.

>> MING: Second most commonly burned thing in the kitchen-- first, of course, is croutons.

>> Croutons!

>> MING: I mean how many sheet trays of croutons?

>> Too many.

And, you know, chefs we... >> MING: That's a great point.

>> We have to multi-task, right?

If it's up here, and you're doing other stuff, and you're prepping, and you're getting ready for your dinner party or your dinner, you have your eye on it.

And you get to watch it go toasty, and get golden, and you can smell it.

>> MING: And you start smelling it.

>> Again, one of the other senses.

So we're going to let that toast up.

>> MING: So this is going to toast, this is going to reduce, this is going to render.

We're going to take a quick break, probably about ten, 15 minutes when the duck is ready, and then we're going to plate this dish together.

>> Easy.

>> MING: Stick around!

>> Okay, so this has rendered down, you can see all the fat that's come out.

>> MING: Amazing amount of fat.

>> I mean it's really a lot.

>> MING: Keep... we added no oil, no butter, nothing-- that's just duck fat, guys.

>> You can really see that.

>> MING: Delicious duck fat.

>> Right.

And we can have this beautiful-- check that out.

>> MING: Look at that, that's amazing.

>> So beautiful.

There's barely any fat left, and that skin is crispy.

So I'm only turning this over in the pan to finish cooking on that side.

>> MING: Still on medium or you go higher heat?

>> I'm gonna turn it up just a little bit.

Because I want it...

I want it to be medium rare.

It's pretty rare right now.

So I'm gonna hang my tongs.

So check this out.

>> MING: Yeah, that reduced-- that was white, now it's caramel.

>> Isn't that beautiful though?

>> MING: So good.

>> I mean so it's going to be like in Italian we call it agrodolce.

>> MING: Agrodolce.

>> Sweet and sour.

Obviously, you know sweet and sour flavors as well.

>> MING: 100%.

>> It crosses all cuisines and cultures-- that sweet and sour flavor.

>> MING: So pretty.

>> We love it.

The pine nuts are toasted, we kept our eye on them the whole time, they're nice and toasty.

They're gonna go right in there.

They're perfect with the sweet and sour because they're so fatty and creamy.

We're gonna put the sage in there.

>> MING: Sage in, okay.

>> And give that a little bit of heat so that the sage cooks.

>> MING: Say when-- I did like eight leaves.

Keep going.

>> That's good.

I'm gonna put a tiny, tiny, tiny little pitch of cayenne.

Now of course we do not have to have it, but for me, I like sweet, sour, salty, creamy-- I want it all.

>> MING: And then spice.

>> Yes.

I mean cause we have fatty and rich right here.

>> MING: It looks like dessert.

It looks like a caramel, a nougatine, right?

>> It's so exciting to me to make something as simple as a plain vinegar into this elegant caramel sauce.

And then we're gonna finish it with butter, of course.

It's everything's a little bit better with butter.

And if you're not a butter fan, which I don't know who you are if you're not.

(Ming laughs) >> MING: I think you're a cow.

>> (laughing): Exactly.

>> MING: Get off of me!

>> Get off of me.

I'm gonna turn my duck off and bring it to the side there.

Really we're just finishing.

This is monte au beurre in French.

And it's just smoothing it out.

Because obviously it's vinegar, so it still has a little bit of acidity, and I want it to be smooth, and I want it to be sauce-like.

>> MING: You want me to-- are those duck breasts good?

>> These are good, let's rest them a little bit.

>> MING: Rest them, okay.

Rest them cause they're not tired, they're very tired, but-- >> They're very tired.

>> MING: Will you explain why we rest our meats?

>> They've been cooked, and they've been seared, and all the juices are inside.

And you see that with steak a lot.

>> MING: This is going to go up like two to five degrees just by hanging out.

>> Even though it's outside of the pan, it's still actually cooking.

And I think a home cook doesn't understand that sometimes.

They go from pan to table.

Let that rest.

>> MING: Three to five minutes?

>> Yeah, three to five minutes.

>> MING: We're gonna hang out for three to five, we're gonna have a caipirinha.

>> Of course.

>> MING: We come back, duck breast, sliced.

>> Okay, so five minutes have passed.

And you and I are rested, and so is the duck.

>> MING: So rested.

>> Feeling good.

Ready to eat, ready to slice.

>> MING: And see, there's a little bit of liquid comes out.

>> Little bit.

>> MING: That's normal for resting.

But if she slices when it was hot, this would be a puddle.

>> That's right, all the juices would be gone.

All that effort that you did to cook it and sear it beautifully would be... also be gone.

So we're just gonna slice.

And, you know, that cut is always for the chef-- that little piece.

And then you get to see the temperature of the duck, which is gorgeous.

Think of it as a steak, do not think of this as a piece of poultry.

Okay, we want this medium rare.

If you have to, if you really have to, it can be medium, okay?

So we're just going to put it down on our beautiful platter.

Now obviously you can serve this with some vegetables, I like to serve it with a bitter green.

You know, maybe a broccoli rabe, or a little bit of kale, or dandelion.

But, honestly, this is just such a good protein on its own.

>> MING: It is so perfectly cooked.

Look at that, guys.

Awesome.

>> It's just beautiful.

Pink-ish is really what you want.

>> MING: And I'm going to say it again because I've had it so many times.

When duck is overcooked, it tastes like liver.

I have nothing against liver, when I want to eat liver I eat liver, but I don't want my duck to taste like liver.

>> Well, it tastes like overcooked liver.

>> MING: Yeah, overcooked liver, it's not a good thing.

>> Because we like liver when it's cooked properly.

So really you're just going to do a little bit of presentation, but, honestly, not that much.

This is simple, that's for me-- oh, that's for you.

>> MING: Sorry, that was for you.

You snooze you lose, sorry, chef.

>> And then we have this gorgeous sauce.

I mean, just look at the texture of that now.

It's kind of caramelly, it's kind of buttery.

And then you have all those beautiful pine nuts.

>> MING: Oh... that's sexy.

>> Right?

And it gives you a foil to that fatty, rich duck.

Sweet, sour... >> MING: You could smell the sour and sweetness... >> I love it!

>> MING: As you're plating it.

>> And then a little bit of that sage, a tiny bit of cayenne, and this is the perfect bite.

Look at that, a little-- and some texture from the pine nuts.

>> MING: That looks so luscious, oh, my God.

I can't wait to get to the table with you to eat this duck.

>> It's very exciting.

>> MING: So will you stick around and cook my tea-smoked duck with me?

>> Of course!

I love to learn.

>> MING: Duck number two, coming up.

Quack, quack.

(laughs) >> MING: Chef, your duck, oh, my God, looks so god.

>> Do you like it?

>> MING: A little bite, I can't wait to eat the whole thing.

So I'm also using the same duck breast, so I'm going to tea-smoke them.

It's going to go on a watercress salad with a little bit of apple kind of cider chutney.

>> I can't describe to you how excited I am.

I love tea-smoked duck.

>> MING: Awesome.

So, I'm sure you've seen tea-smoking.

Equal parts white sugar, a good strong tea-- this is a lapsang souchong, which is a very smoky tea-- and white rice.

So you mix this all together.

>> But I love this method, right, because then you're sort of caramelizing the sugar, the tea is giving it the flavor, and the rice is slowing it down.

>> MING: The rice is the insulator.

>> I love that!

>> MING: Very good.

Right, so that's exactly it.

So what we do is we mix this all up.

Use a wok, it's the best way to smoke.

But line it with foil.

Why-- because you don't want to ruin your wok, right?

So you dump all of this in on the foil.

>> Cause what's going to happen, that sugar's just gonna completely caramelize and burn.

>> MING: It's gonna start melting, turn caramel, and that starts smoking the tea.

Right, that takes about three or four minutes to come together.

>> Can't wait.

>> MING: So if you can just mince me-- small dice onion-- and I will do these duck breasts.

>> I love that we're both using the same duck, but two totally different preparations.

>> MING: I take the tenders off just 'cause I save them for later.

Same thing, you have this fat in the back.

You really want to clean that off.

This sinew... this sinew you want to take off.

It's just a little tough, it's not bad for you, it's just a little tough.

So take the fat off like that-- score.

>> No, but there's a restaurant in my neighborhood that makes a tea-smoked duck, but they make it inside of a fried rice.

>> MING: Oh, that sounds so good.

>> But I love the idea of having it all on its own.

Just a big chunk of duck.

>> MING: All right, so again, you want to score it, try not to cut the meat 'cause you want the meat to cook.

>> I love that, now you're going a little closer than I did.

>> MING: A little closer, yeah.

>> Because you're going at a lower temperature.

>> MING: Exactly.

All right, like everything, you still have to season as you go, right?

These ducks do not come seasoned.

Like Amanda just did, be generous, there's no light seasoning.

All right, how are your onions coming in, chef?

>> Beautiful, ready to go, I'm not crying.

>> MING: Good.

The secret of not crying is what, chef?

>> Cutting really quickly?

>> MING: A sharp knife.

>> Oh, a sharp knife!

>> MING: You don't see it, there's onion mist.

If you use a dull knife, there's an onion mist, and then the mist hits your eyes, you start crying.

So sharp knives you never cry.

All right, okay look, see this?

Look what's going on here, guys.

>> Oh, this is so exciting to me!

Do you see, that's like caramel!

>> MING: You see the bubble, you see this tea start smoking, this is when you put your wok on.

Chef, bring me those duck breasts.

(Amanda groans) Right, we have a banana leaf, you can see the smoke coming out.

Perfect.

Boom.

Now I'm gonna turn it...

I just want to see a little smoke.

>> You do.

>> MING: And you want to go for about ten minutes.

So once you can see a little smoke come out, in ten minutes.

All right, let me get a little bit of oil.

Get these onions caramelizing.

I'm coming to you, chef.

>> But I also think it's so exciting to be able to smoke at home.

And I'm talking about duck.

>> MING: Go, thank you.

Yes, I agree.

I think smoking any proteins at home is fantastic.

All right, chef, again we season, season, season as we go.

>> And this is going to be sort of our vinaigrette, our sauce.

>> MING: It's kind of an apple chutney.

>> Our chutney.

Show me your apple technique.

Here, you can use my knife if you want.

>> MING: So I like the skin, I'm just gonna take, you know, a good part of it off.

This you can eat, right?

Don't throw that away.

>> I'll eat that.

>> MING: But then I do two slices on each side 'cause you don't want the core.

>> All right.

>> MING: All right.

So a little skin in this chutney, not an issue.

Then you just stack them up, and I cut julienne, and then I cut little dice.

>> All right, let's do it.

>> MING: So we'll do...

I think two apples should be plenty.

About yea big, about the same as your onions.

And I like the skin, the skin's a different texture, it's a different flavor than of course the meat, but a little bit is fine.

I mean, I know doctors say the skin is the healthiest, which is probably right, but... >> An apple a day.

>> MING: An apple a day.

>> Does it work for you?

>> MING: 100%.

(Amanda laughs) Fruit, gotta eat fruit, right?

All right, we got some onions going here.

So I want to get these caramelized.

You can see this smoking, so this is going to go ten minutes, this is going to take about, I don't know, probably six or seven minutes for it to caramelize.

We're gonna add the apples to it, and then we're going to deglaze with this.

>> Come on, what is that?

I've been wanting to know what's in that secret bottle.

>> MING: This is a cidre sauvage, so country cider, it's an unfiltered cider from upstate New York.

It is delicious, give it a try, chef.

>> And we're cooking with this, this is going inside the chutney.

>> MING: Yes, I'm going to deglaze.

>> All right.

>> MING: I love it... >> What?!

>> MING: 'Cause it's not sweet.

>> It's not sweet at all.

>> MING: It tastes like a freaking apple tree, right?

So that's what we're gonna deglaze.

All right, we're gonna take a quick break, in seven minutes, tea-smoked duck and an apple chutney.

Stick around.

All right, so about five, six minutes we have nice caramel.

>> Looks beautiful.

>> MING: Little bit of ginger.

All right, dump your apples in here, please.

>> All right.

And this is gonna kind of deglaze it with the juice from the apple.

>> MING: Exactly.

But we're also going to deglaze it with a little bit of our apple cider.

>> (chuckling): Oh yes... >> MING: Oh yeah.

>> Don't use too much because I'd like more in my glass, actually.

>> MING: You like to drink more, okay.

All right, so this I want to cook down.

Take about five minutes to cook that.

I want a little crunch in the apples, right, I don't want it mushy.

>> Right, and I can smell the ginger, and the apple, and the onion.

>> MING: Oh yeah, baby... >> Oh my God!

>> MING: ...look at those.

>> That is the pièce de résistance right there.

>> MING: But they're still not fully cooked, right?

They're still...

I want to get the skin crispy now, okay.

So this is Chinese style, this is not medium rare, right?

This is like Peking duck, cooked all the way through, right.

It's a tea-smoked duck.

>> Right, 'cause it's cooked really slowly with the smoke, so it's not fully coked.

>> MING: Correct.

>> But really flavorful.

>> MING: This is going to take about four minutes to get a crispy skin.

This is going to take four minutes.

The last thing we want to do, if you don't mind, zest... zest on the watercress, and then juice of half a lemon.

And then as you're doing that, I'm going to take some Thai basil, which is... >> I love Thai basil.

Is that the basil that you use always?

>> MING: Basically.

>> Basically, right?

Like, 'cause once you start using that, you can't really... >> MING: You can't go back, it's basil with licorice or fennel.

>> Oh...

I can smell it.

>> MING: More interesting.

>> As soon as you smacked it, all of the aromas came out.

Really beautiful.

>> MING: So I'm actually not putting any olive oil in here because we have plenty of fat with what's going on.

>> Oh yeah.

>> MING: All right.

So that's our... okay, beautiful.

Come back in four minutes, this duck breast is going to be crispy, nice and rested, we slice it and we go.

Four minutes, stick around.

All right, so the duck breasts are resting.

Again, like you, a couple pats of butter just makes it tastier.

It gives it a little richness, gives a little viscosity.

>> Rounds out the acid a little bit.

>> MING: It does.

All right, this is perfect.

Let that go.

All right, lay me a nice bed of watercress.

Again, this is watercress with lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper, that's it, no oil.

>> This is gorgeous, too, nice and spicy, really peppery.

>> MING: Oh yeah... We're gonna go lengthwise.

(Amanda gasps) >> That's stunning.

Look at the way-- so your skin actually kind of caramelized from the smoke.

>> MING: Yeah, the smoke helps it.

>> I can really smell the tea.

>> MING: Amazing, love it.

>> I love the way you're cutting it.

>> MING: Yeah, makes it look like steak.

>> Really, duck is so much like steak, I can't say it enough that this is something you should add to your repertoire.

>> MING: There we go.

>> Beautiful.

>> MING: Wunderbar!

Then... Last but not least.

Again, ginger, onion, apples, apple cider deglaze, and a little bit of butter.

>> Little bit of butter.

>> MING: There we go.

>> And with that peppery watercress on the bottom, and the brightness of the lemon.

>> MING: Girl... >> Oh, I can't wait to get in here!

>> MING: Let's go eat some duck.

>> Let's do it.

>> MING: Come on, grab your cider.

We go.

Okay, chef, we have a little petite sirah from Napa Valley.

>> Perfect.

>> MING: Got a little bit of grenache and sirah in it.

>> Cheers.

Here's to duck.

>> MING: One year of oak.

>> Mm!

>> MING: Mm.

>> May I?

>> MING: That should go-- please.

>> Serve you some of my duck?

>> MING: Put my plate right there.

>> Little bit of agrodolce.

>> MING: I love it.

I'm gonna give you a nice piece here.

>> Or, as you say, sweet and sour.

>> MING: Exactly, coming in hot for you, chef.

>> All right.

>> MING: Boom.

>> Cannot wait to try this smoky duck.

>> MING: Watercress.

(Amanda groans) There we go.

>> That ginger and that apple.

>> MING: Time to eat.

>> Oh, my God... >> MING: Mm!

>> That melts in your mouth.

>> MING: That sauce is... you should bottle that.

It is sweet, it is sour, but the genius is the pine nuts.

>> Right?

That texture.

>> MING: The pine nuts it's so toasty, it's like... it's like a crème brûlée with sour notes.

It's so good.

Perfectly cooked duck, crispy skin.

>> This is perfectly cooked, and a totally different texture.

Because of that smoke it makes it like butter.

It feels like it's confit almost.

>> MING: Oh yeah, I know what you mean.

So what are you working on?

>> I'm happily working on another book because I loved... >> MING: Nice.

>> I loved it.

I'm... you know, I'm still all about teaching the home cook to not be afraid.

>> MING: Right.

>> And get in there, and do it.

So I want to take that to the next level.

>> MING: You're one of the best teachers I know.

>> Thank you.

>> MING: Thank you, love.

You're the best.

>> I love learning from you.

>> MING: You're the best.

And you guys are also the best.

And, as always, peace and good eating.

Cheers.

♪