Duck Curry

This is a traditional Kerala recipe that I obtained from my mom. A generation back, it was a common sight to see small duck farmers tending to their small flock of birds in the paddy fields of Kerala after the harvest. The ducks would feast on the rice left-out during harvest, crustaceans and small fish abundant in such fields. The farmer would sell eggs and male ducks in the neighborhood up until all the fields in that area would be cleansed of by his birds of anything edible, before they move another place.

Such ducks will not have any fat, but its minimum amount of meat is very tasty, mainly due to how it is raised. In Bay Area, young, frozen duck from Asian countries is available. It is larger in size compared to the Kerala duck, and has large fat deposits. But, it still tastes like a duck, and so is a good replacement. Make sure that you remove most of the fat before and during cooking.

Ingredients
( serves 8 - 10)

1.Duck - 4 lbs ( skinned and cut in to small pieces and fat removed)
2. Fennel seeds ( Perumjeerakam) - 1 tbs
3. black pepper - 1 tbs
4. salt - to taste
5. turmeric powder - 1 tsp
6. coconut milk - 1 can ( 250 ml)
7. ginger - 2 inches piece ( cut in to small pieces)
8. garlic - 1 pod ( cut in to small pieces)
9. curry leaves- 2 stems.
10.onion - 2 medium size.
11. potato - 2 medium size.
12. vinegar - 1 tbs

Steps

Grind ingredients number 2 through 5 in the mixer about 5 seconds. Marinate the duck
pieces in this mix for about 1 hr.

Saute ingredients 7 through 10 for about 7 - 10 minutes in a pan. Keep it aside. In the same
pan put marinated duck. Stir it often, until the water from duck completely dries up. This process takes about 20 minutes. ( Make sure the temperature is adjusted
to medium or medium high at this time, so that it doesn't take more than 20 minutes to dry) .

Take about 100 ml of the coconut milk and mix it with about 100ml of water and
add it to duck mix. Also add the sauteed onion, ginger, garlic mix to it. Cook the duck
until the onion is dissolved in the gravy; about 20 minutes. Add the rest of the coconut milk to
this, and bring it to simmer and let it cool. After about 10 minutes add vinegar
to this.

Cut potato in to round pieces and pan fry it. Garnish duck curry with the fried potato slices and
serve with appam or white bread loaves. The garnishing is optional and it it can be skipped if you want to reduce the calories.