Aged duck with shiitake: Jim Ophorst – PRU

Aged duck and sweet tamarind by chef Jim Ophorst of PRU restaurant.

Young, ambitious and adventurous: chef Jim Ophorst – or ‘Jimmy’ as most Asian people like to say – is a name to remember. With his restaurant called PRU, he has made the Thai island of Phuket a must visit stopover for foodies, establishing a truly unique dining concept. The restaurant is situated in the beautiful Trisara Resort at the Andaman coast. The location seems to be a piece of heaven, boasting understated, yet refined luxury and top-notch service. At the heart of the resort, you’ll find PRU restaurant. The elegant, yet atmospheric design of the dining home immediately gets you in the right mood. Simple, stylish designs combining the local identity and international class, natural materials and beautiful atmospheric lightning set the tone.

Inspired by Phuket’s legacy as a culinary crossroad and the island’s unique terroir, PRU restaurant is pursuing his own culinary ambition – to elevate farm-to-table cooking to a new level. The chef and his team use nature’s gifts from their own farm and do their part to give back, ensuring that life’s cycle continues to blossom and ripen. In addition, the name PRU is a contraction of ‘Plant’, ‘Raise’ and ‘Understand’: the three cornerstones of their philosophy. “The idea is that we plant our own seeds to grow our own vegetables, raise our own poultry and use only local produce that we serve at the table. By doing this, we complete the whole circle of understanding in agriculture and cuisine, which in turn supports the local island community.” You can notice the chef’s love for local produce in his dish made with aged duck and shiitake, in which only free-range ducks from a local farmer are used. Chef Jim Ophorst is happy to share his recipe with us.

Recipe: Aged duck with shiitake

Ingredients & preparation: Aged duck

Ingredients: Brine water

7,5 l of water
500 g of salt
3 pieces of cinnamon stick
15 pieces of star anise
20 g of coriander seeds
5 pieces of bay leaf
10 g of black pepper corn

Ingredients: Honey water

7,5 l of water
260 ml of wild honey
10 pieces of dry shiitake mushroom
10 g of fresh thyme
3 pieces of shallot

Preparation

Clean the duck and remove the head, legs and wings.
Brine the duck in salt water for 24 hours.
Afterwards, marinate the duck in a honey bath for 24 hours.
Fill the duck with dry lemongrass and hang it in the dry age room for 5 days.
Roast the duck over a fire made with a mix of charcoal and Longan wood for 1-2 hours. Glaze the duck every 5 minutes with a mushroom glaze.
When the temperature of the duck is 53°C, smoke the duck with the dry lemongrass that was used to fill the duck.
Hang the duck to rest for 1-2 hours before serving.
Before serving, fillet the duck and roast it quickly over some very hot charcoal in order to create a crispy skin.

“We use free-range ducks from the mountain of Petchabun. There, the ducks are farmed in a sustainable way by one of our close suppliers.”

Ingredients & preparation: Shiitake mushroom textures

Ingredients: Caramelized shiitake cream

450 g of fresh shiitake
2 pieces of shallot
4 pieces of garlic
100 ml of red wine
500 ml of vegetable stock
150 ml of whipping cream
Salt & pepper

Preparation: Caramelized shiitake cream

Bake the fresh shiitakes for 5-6 hours in an oven at 110°C.
Cut the pieces of shallot and garlic in half rings.
Fry the rings in a large saucepan until they’re soft and have a light brown colour.
Add the shiitakes and fry until they’re soft again.
Add the red wine and reduce until finished.
Add the vegetable stock and the whipping cream, and reduce half.
Once reduced, put all the ingredients in the blender and blend for 5 minutes.
Season it with salt & pepper.

Ingredients: Braised shiitake

4 pieces of shiitake
100 ml of mushroom stock
20 g of butter
Salt & pepper
1 sheet of puff pastry

Preparation: Braised shiitake

Warm a small saucepan and add some oil.
Fry the shiitakes on both sides until they’re light brown.
Add the mushroom stock and cover the pan for 1 minute.
Remove the pan and add the butter.
Reduce until the mushrooms are glazed.
Cut the puff pastry with a cutter ring of 5 cm. Put the puff pastry circle between 2 pieces of baking paper and bake for 15 minutes in an oven at 180°C.
Put the braised shiitake on top of the puff pastry.

Ingredients & preparation: Duck sauce

Ingredients

20 kg of duck bones – separated by 4 hot dishes
4 carrots – separated by 4 hot dishes
4 onions – separated by 4 hot dishes
400 g of celery – separated by 4 hot dishes
8 leeks – separated by 4 hot dishes
4 garlics – separated by 4 hot dishes
12 shallots – separated by 4 hot dishes
4 fennels – separated by 4 hot dishes
12 tomatoes – separated by 4 hot dishes
4 bottles of red wine – separated by 4 hot dishes
1 bottle of red port wine
30 gr of star anise

Preparation

Prepare 4 hot dishes with the same amount of the ingredients.
Cut the vegetables in big pieces.
Roast 1 hot dish at the time for 45 minutes in an oven at 225 °C.
After they’re roasted, put the duck bones in a large saucepan and put the hot dish on the fire.
Glaze the hot dish with one bottle of red wine and reduce for 50%.
Add the red wine to the saucepan, together with some water until the duck bones are under water.
Bring to boil on a high fire. Once the duck bones are boiling, turn the fire and simmer for 5 hours.
After 5 hours, remove the duck bones and keep the stock.
Repeat this process 3 times, but don’t add any more water – add the duck stock from the time before.
After the last time, put one bottle of port wine in a small saucepan and add the star anise. Reduce this for 50% and add it to the duck sauce (without the star anise).
Reduce this sauce for another 50% in order to have the base of the duck sauce.
Give the duck sauce the flavour you want.

“The duck sauce is made from 100% duck bones and is roasted and reduced for 4 times in order to give the sauce a very strong duck flavour.”

Plating

Put a little bit of the shiitake cream on the plate and cover it with some sliced raw mushrooms and shiitake powder.
Place the braised shiitake tart on the plate and finish the dish with a slice of duck.
Add the duck sauce at your preference.