New years eve we made roast duck red curry. We borrowed Gordon Ramsey's red curry recipe from the book "Gordon Ramsay: Cooking for friends". Page 81 ( It is a recipe for fish curry we just made it with roast duck instead. ) It is really easy to make and has bold Thai flavours. Enjoy
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Pat the duck dry with a tea towel or paper towel. Rub sea salt into the duck skin, turning it over to season all areas.
Cut an orange in half and place both halves inside the cavity.
Sprinkle the skin with Chinese five spice (available from the spice section at most supermarkets). Rub it into the skin. Roast the duck on a roasting rack in the pre-heated over for 2 hours. Turn the duck over after one hour. Roast the duck breast side up for the last two minutes.
Making the Curry Paste:
It is easy to grow your own lemon grass. Here we have grown ours in a half a wine barrel. Pull the lemon grass stalks up like picking a spring onion. You will need 1 lemon grass stalk, finely chopped.
Chop up 3 garlic cloves.
De seed and chop 6-7 large mild chillies.
Put the above ingredients in a food processor. Add a 5cm piece or ginger peeled and chopped, a small hand full of coriander stems, 2 finely chopped kaffir lime leaves, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp ground turmeric and 3-4 tbsp water.
Whiz it up to make a smooth paste.
Grow basil quick and easy from seedlings. We have grown ours in a cement planter box under a sunny veranda. Basil makes the perfect garnish to this dish adding pungent flavour.
...Time to turn the duck!
Lime and coconut rice:
300g Thai fragrant rice, washed and drained
200ml coconut milk, mixed with 200ml water
Juice of one lime
2 kaffir lime leaves
Pinch sea salt
How to: Put all of the ingredients into medium saucepan. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and cover the pan. Simmer for 8-10 minutes until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid. Without removing the lid, turn off the heat and leave the rice to steam for 5-10 minutes.
Yum.
Palm sugar, Fish sauce and coconut milk are great to have on hand when making Thai food.
We decided to add some cherry tomatoes from our garden and seedless grapes, because they are in season.
Perfectly cooked duck.
Heat a little oil in a pan or wok. Add the curry paste and stir-fry for about 2-3 minutes over low heat, just until the paste smells fragrant.
Pour in the coconut milk and water, then stir in the palm sugar and fish sauce. bring the liquid to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the suger.
The best part is chopping the duck.
Add the duck to the curry. Stir in a half a cup of cherry tomatoes and a half a cup of red seedliess grapes. Add the basil leaves on top of each bowl of curry.
This is magnificent. Do try!
