Kuttanadan duck curry and roast

Delicious dishes cooked with fresh duck meat are a speciality of the Kuttanad areas. Their duck curry and roast would make the Christmas feast rich and flavoursome. These dishes taste best with appam, puttu, idiyappam, chapathi, poori or porota. The duck meat for both the dishes are cooked together in a pressure cooker. Check out the pretty simple recipes of Kuttanad special duck curry and roast.

To cook the duck meat
Ingredients
2 kg duck (with the skin)
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 small piece of cinnamon
2 cardamom pods
4 cloves
1 ½ tbsp peppercorns
2 big ginger pieces
1 bulb garlic
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 ½ cups shallots
10 green chillies
3 onions (sliced)
1 tomato
Curry leaves as required
1 tbsp vinegar
Salt as required
1 tbsp vinegar
Salt as required
1 cup second extract of coconut milk

Preparation
Clean the duck and cut into big pieces
Crush fennel seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, peppercorns, ginger, garlic and turmeric powder
Take the duck pieces, crushed aromatics and the remaining ingredients in a pressure cooker
Mix well
Cook until four whistles; more if the duck is locally grown
When the duck meat is cooked, scoop out the oil that oozes from the meat.

For the roast
Ingredients
Half of the cooked duck meat
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 onions
½ cup coconut shards
Curry leaves as required
1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder

Preparation
Heat coconut oil in a thick bottomed pan
Fry the coconut shards
Sauté the onions and curry leaves until the oil separates
Add the Kashmiri chilli powder
Sauté until the raw smell of the powder is gone
Add the cooked duck meat along with the gravy
Add salt as required
Sauté on low flame until the gravy reduces and the dish gets drier.

For the curry
Ingredients
Cooked duck meat
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 garlic cloves
3 shallots
3 dried chillies
Curry leaves as required
Salt as required
1 tbsp crushed pepper
¾ cup first extract of coconut milk

Preparation
Heat coconut oil in a thick bottomed pan
Splutter the mustard seeds
Sauté shallots, garlic, dried chillies and curry leaves
When the shallots are brown, add the cooked duck meat
Add salt and crushed pepper
Mix well
When the gravy begins to thicken, add the first extract of coconut milk
Mix well
Turn off the flame when the curry begins to bubble up.