Duck Pineapple Curry Recipe

Duck Pineapple Curry Recipe

(Vietnamese Curry Recipes)

2½ cups coconut milk

1 Chinese roast duck*, boned and cut into 2-cm chunks

½ cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon shaved palm sugar*

2 tablespoons fish sauce

30 g snake beans*, cut into 4-cm lengths

5 kaffir lime leaves*, torn

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

⅓ cup fresh pineapple chunks

1 handful Thai basil leaves*

Curry Paste:

6 dried long red chilies

1 teaspoon dried shrimp paste*

3 garlic cloves

4 Asian (red) eschalots, chopped

1 lemongrass stem (white part only), sliced

1 tablespoon sliced fresh galangal*

1½ teaspoons ground coriander (cilantro)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon ground cloves

Method:

To make curry paste, soak dried chilies in hot water for 1-2 minutes or until softened.  Remove stems and seeds and roughly chop.  Heat a frying pan over high heat, wrap dried shrimp paste in foil and heat in the pan for 5 minutes or until fragrant.  Cool, then use a mortar and pestle to pound the dried shrimp paste and remaining ingredients into a fine paste, adding a little water if necessary.  Alternatively, chop ingredients into a paste using a small food processor.  To make duck curry, place coconut milk and curry paste in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add duck, stock, sugar, fish sauce, beans, lime leaves and a pinch of salt and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes and pineapple and cook for another 3 minutes.  Just before serving, stir in the basil leaves.

*Chinese roast duck is from Asian takeaway stores.  Palm sugar and dried shrimp paste are from Asian supermarkets.  Snake beans, kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil leaves and galangal are from greengrocers and Asian supermarkets.  Alternatively snake beans can be substituted with green beans, Thai basil with regular basil and galangal with ginger.