Yes, it was time again. I was craving for donabe smoked duck breast.
This is my beautiful donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin". It's basically, you just set the smoke chips and ingredients inside of this donabe pot, then over high-heat of the gas stove, you can make hot smoked food in just a little over 30 minutes. It's also smokeless (smoke is kept inside during smoking, with the waterseal), so this is an ideal indoor smoker.
First, I made smoked soy sauce. Whoever tasted my smoked soy sauce becomes addicted to it! It's so smoky and so good with many dishes.
Then, I smoked duck breast, shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, and soft-boiled eggs. Duck breast was seasoned with salt and pepper, and air-dried in the fridge 24 hours. Also, it's very important to score the skin into checker patterns before seasoning, but make sure not to let the knife penetrate into the meat.
For smoking, I used my regular sakura (cherry blossom tree) smoke chips, plus some thyme sprigs. After about 37 minutes including 20-minute carry-over heat, everything was ready.
The duck breast was so tender, flavorful, and smokey. I squeezed some lemon to the meat to enjoy. You can find the recipe on toiro's website. Hope you will try it.
Happy donabe life.
