Roasted Duck and Longan Fruit Curry

One of my favorite dishes to get at a Thai restaurant is Duck Curry. In general, I just love a good roasted duck. I was a vegetarian for a little bit and the thing that broke me was that I was craving duck meat.  Cha Ba Thai and PaaDee are a couple restaurants in town that make a Duck Curry with Longan Fruit. The flavor combination blew me away—sweet and savory at the same time.

What do I usually do when I come across a dish that I love? I go home and try to recreate it; adjusting the dish to my palate. I already have a great basic red curry recipe that I use regularly so that served as a base and I changed up the ingredients that went into it. I came up with my own version of Roasted Duck and Longan Fruit Curry.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp cooking oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 can (4 oz) red curry paste

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips

2 can (400ml) full-fat coconut milk

1 can (20 oz) longan in syrup

1 cup cherry or grape tomato, cut in half

2 Tbsp fish sauce

2 tsp palm sugar

1/2 roasted duck

2 Tbsp Thai basil

A lot of these ingredients are available at an Asian grocery store. In Portland, you can even find roasted duck in the deli section. I don’t roast my own duck, that out of my wheelhouse. If you live in the Portland Metro area, Good Taste is a great place to get roasted 1/2 or whole duck. Canned longan fruit is easy to find, but if anyone comes across fresh longan and have the time to peel/seed them, go for it. Good substitutions include lychee or rambutan.

Let’s get cooking! In a wok or large fry pan over medium heat, warm two tablespoons of oil. Use a cooking oil like corn, peanut or vegetable, something that is not going to add additional notes to the dish. Add the garlic and red bell pepper and cook for one minute then put in the curry paste while stirring until fragrant - about ten seconds. Cooking curry paste, tomato paste, or spices are going to bring out the flavor.

Stir in the coconut milk and bring to boil. Combine the fish sauce and palm sugar with the coconut milk and mix until dissolved. Taste the curry, adjust the seasoning if needed or desired. If using canned Longan fruit, drain the liquid and add fruit to the curry. The roasted duck and tomatoes can be added at this time as well. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Since most of the ingredients are cooked or fresh, the dish doesn’t take too long to come together. Transfer the curry to a serving bowl, garnish with the basil and serve immediately with steamed rice.