Thai red curry duck

i love Thai food especially red curry. i love the heavenly combination of coconut milk and the citrus flavour of lemon grass and kafir lime leaves. Some of my best culinary memories involve meals in Thai restaurants. i specially remember one in Texas (i don’t remember the name of the restaurant but i think it was Basil something) with my husband (husband-to-be back then) and the taste of the heavenly food we had still lingers in my memory.

Though you can get ready made Thai red curry paste in almost any supermarket now, i chose to make it from scratch (lazy though i am). Nothing beats the feeling of cooking a favourite dish right from scratch.

The dish turned out lip-smacking good.

i did not have kafir lime leaves so i used the zest of a lime.

Things you need:

About 750g duck cut into small pieces

1 can (400ml) of coconut milk

Oil

Salt

2-3 teaspoons of fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

For the red curry paste

4 stalks of lemon grass

2.5 cm of galangal

Roots of about 4-5 coriander (substitute with the stem of about 100g of coriander if you don’t have roots)

6 cloves of garlic

2-3 shallots (i used 1 medium red onion)

zest of one lime

6-7 red chilllies (more if you like)

4 teaspoons of coriander seeds

2 teaspoons of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon sugar

The method:

Soak the red chillies in hot water to soften. Roast the coriander and cumin seeds till fragrant. Set aside to cool. Remove the tough portion of the lemon grass and chop the soft stalk. Chop the galangal into chunks.

Grind the roasted coriander and cumin seeds to a fine powder. Add the remaining ingredients for the red paste and grind to a smooth consistency. This will yield about 8 teaspoons of red curry paste. You can store the excess curry paste in an airtight container in the fridge for future use.

In a wok, brown the duck pieces. You would be surprised at how much fat it gives off. Drain the fat and keep the duck pieces aside.

Heat a little oil in a wok. put about 3-4 teaspoon of red curry paste and fry for about 5 minutes to release the flavour. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Season with salt. When it starts bubbling, add the browned duck pieces. Simmer on low heat till you have a nice thick gravy.

If you have Thai basil, you could add it to enhance the flavour. Serve with jasmine rice and float on a cloud of pure culinary pleasure.