The best duck curry I had was in Bangkok at the Oriental Hotel (of course!).  My friend, Karen and I loved the duck curry at Sala Rim Naam — between our marathon massage sessions, we would take the river taxi across the Chao Praya just to have the duck curry. The river ride adds to the eating experience!

Well, on this side of the Pacific, I take the short cut of using store-bought roasted duck from Chinatown and whip out a quick red curry sauce.  Don’t worry about making your own curry paste – the Thais use the bottled ones, so why don’t we, too.

Chef’s tip: Save the bonier parts of the duck for other uses. The five spice seasoning in the carcass sometimes overpowers the curry. Thai Kitchen’s brand fish sauce and curry paste are pretty good.

Ingredients

½ cup of coconut cream
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste

2 cups coconut milk
5 pieces of kaffir lime leaves, chiffonade finely
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 Tablespoon palm / brown sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt, to taste

1 cup mini Thai eggplant (or 1/2 Japanese eggplant cut into 3/4 inch length)
1 zuchinni, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 roasted duck (from Hong Kong-style delis)

10 lycees or grapes
10 cherry tomatoes
A sprig of basil

1. In a medium saucepot, heat 1/2 cup coconut cream on medium high till it begins to bubble.  Add curry paste and sliced garlic.  Fry till fragrant, red and oil has separated, about 5-7 minutes
2. Add remaining coconut milk and simmer for a few minutes
3. Finely shred kaffir lime leaves, reserves a generous pinch for garnishing
4. Add shredded kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, sugar, and salt.  Add eggplant and zuchinni.  Simmer uncovered until gravy has thicken.
5. Cut duck into 8 pieces (reserve bones and wings for other use) and add to the curry.  Simmer 3 minutes.
6. Remove from heat.  Add grapes/lycee and tomatoes.
7.  Garnish with kaffir lime leaves and basil.

Serves: 4

Tags: coconut, curry, Thai.

A simpler take on the Beijing favorite, Peking duck.  To get the crisp skin, you will need to dry the duck really really dry.  If you go to a Beijing-ya place, you will find ducks hanging all over….see the picture below.  I guess with the pollution out there, you can call it smoked duck!  If you have the time, just pop the duck uncovered into the fridge overnight, or place it in front of a fan for an hour.

Chef’s tip: We use the flour tortilla for the pancake.  Steaming it is optional.  If you want, you can also make the soft bread buns – see the cha siu bao post for the soft bread buns recipe.
Ingredients

Ingredients:
1 small whole duck
2 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoon water

Flour tortilla, makes 20 3-inch rounds
Sesame oil
3 stalks of green onions, cut into 3 inch strips
½ English cucumber, seeded, cut into 3 inch juliennes
1 cup Hoisin sauce

Preparing the duck
1.    Plunge the duck in boiling water for 5 minutes to tighten the skin.  Remove and drain, then pat dry, inside and out
2.    Mix the 5-spice powder, sugar and salt together.  Rub all over the duck, inside and out with the spice rub.
3.    Mix rice vinegar, honey, soy sauce, hoisin and water together.  Baste the duck with marinade.
4.    Allow to dry uncovered in fridge overnight, or place in front of a fan till the skin is taut and dry.
5.    Preheat oven to 400°F.
6.    Place the duck, breast side up on a roasting rack, and roast for 1 ¼ – 1 ½ hour, or until when thermometer registers 165F at the thickest part.  Tent the breast if it gets too dark.
7.    Remove from oven, and carve into thin slices
Preparing the pancakes
8.    Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out tortilla rounds. Brush with sesame oil
9.    Bring a wok and steamer to boil.
10.    Steam tortilla for 3 minutes
11.    Spread some hoisin sauce on the tortilla pancake, then add the duck, scallion, cucumber, and roll it up.  Serve warm.

Makes 20 pancakes

Tags: Chinese, duck, finger foods, Hoisin.