← Nouns Cooking · Thai

Ingredients

• 450 g Chinese roast duck (about ½ duck), meat sliced off the bone, skin on
• 120 ml thick coconut cream
• 3 tbsp Thai red curry paste
• 400 ml Coconut milk
• 2 tbsp Fish sauce
• 1 tbsp Palm sugar, grated
• 4 Makrut (kaffir) lime leaves, torn
• 3 round Thai aubergines, quartered (optional)
• 200 g fresh pineapple, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 8 Cherry tomatoes
• 8 lychees, fresh or tinned and drained (optional)
• 1 handful Thai basil
• 1 long red chilli, sliced on the diagonal

Method

1. Simmer the coconut cream in a wok or saucepan over medium heat for 2–3 min, stirring, until it thickens and little beads of oil appear.
2. Stir in the curry paste and fry for 2 min, until fragrant and darker. Add the fish sauce, palm sugar and torn lime leaves and stir until the sugar melts.
3. Pour in the coconut milk, add the aubergines if using and simmer gently for 5 min, until they start to soften.
4. Add the duck, pineapple and tomatoes and simmer for 3–4 min, just until the duck is hot through and the tomatoes begin to slump. Don’t boil hard or the duck skin turns soggy.
5. Add the lychees, taste and adjust with more fish sauce or sugar; it should be salty, gently sweet and spicy. Stir in the basil and chilli, then serve with jasmine rice.

Tips

• Buy the duck ready-roasted from a Chinese barbecue shop; ask them to chop it for you and save the bones for stock.
• Check the curry paste label: most contain shrimp paste.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Temple of Thai Hungry in Thailand RecipeTin Eats