It's well worth the time making your own spicy paste for this low calorie duck curry from Singapore.
Ingredients
- 2 x 225g duck breasts with skin
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 2 tsp light muscovado sugar
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1-2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
- 8 fresh kaffir lime leaves (optional)
- 12 vine-ripened cherry tomatoes
- 4 tbsp coconut cream
- 200g fresh pineapple pieces
- 15g fresh basil leaves
For the curry paste
- 1 dried red kashmiri chilli
- 1 medium-hot red chilli, chopped
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 lemongrass stalk, core chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 small shallot, roughly chopped
- Pinch each ground coriander, cumin, turmeric and cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp sweet paprika
Method
- 1. For the paste, soak the dried chilli in a small bowl of water for 30 minutes. Put it with 2 tbsp of the soaking water and the remaining paste ingredients, in a mini food processor. Blend to a paste.
- 2. Heat a dry, heavy-based sauté pan over a high heat. Season the duck breasts and fry for 4-5 minutes each side. Remove the skins and thinly slice.
- 3. Wipe the pan, add the oil and place over a high heat. Add the paste and cook for 2 minutes. Add 100ml water, the sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, lime leaves (if using), tomatoes and 2 tbsp coconut cream. Cook for 3 minutes.
- 4. Stir in the pineapple and duck, and simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the basil and remaining coconut cream, then serve with steamed rice.
Nutritional info
Per serving: 261kcals, 13.4g fat (2.5g saturated), 22.6g protein, 13.9g carbs, 10.4g sugar, 1.7g salt
Chef's tip
Duck is often thought of as a fatty bird, but trimmed of visible fat and skin it contains around the same amount of calories and fat as lean roast lamb, but has more iron. It’s a good source of the mineral selenium, which is essential to the immune system. To retain moisture and flavour, cook duck with the skin
on but remove it before eating.