Gaeng Ped Ped Yang (Red Curry with Roasted Duck)

Ingredients

• 1 (whole) Chinese-style roasted duck (ped yang), from a Chinese-Thai roast meat shop, or home-roasted; cut through the bone into legs, thighs, and breast sections
• 400 ml coconut cream, for cracking
• 600 ml coconut milk, thin; added after paste frying
• 4 tbsp red curry paste, generous quantity; the duck's richness demands more paste than a standard red curry
• 200 g fresh pineapple, peeled, cut into firm cubes
• 150 g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 150 g fresh lychee, peeled and stoned; or canned lychee, well-drained
• 2 tbsp fish sauce, for seasoning; adjust to taste
• 1 tbsp palm sugar, for seasoning
• To finish
• 6 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced into chiffonade
• 2 fresh red chillies, sliced on the diagonal
• 1 handful Thai sweet basil, leaves picked

Method

1. 1
   Pour the coconut cream into a wide, heavy pan over a medium-high flame and cook without stirring, so the heat drives off the water and the fat separates cleanly from the solids rather than steaming off in a rush. The oil will rise visibly, the mass will lose its emulsified appearance, and the surface will shimmer with a clear ring of coconut oil. When the cream smells toasted and nutty, you have cracked cream and can proceed.
2. 2
   Add the red curry paste to the cracked cream and fry, pressing and folding continuously, so the paste blooms in the hot coconut oil rather than stewing in residual moisture — this is what drives off the raw edge and coaxes out the full fragrance of the chillies and aromatics. Work until the paste is fully absorbed into the oil and the mixture deepens in colour. It is ready when the kitchen smells of roasted chilli and the paste pulls cleanly from the base of the pan.
3. 3
   This is where the dish lives or dies: add the roasted duck portions and turn each piece so that every surface, especially the lacquered, fat-rich skin, makes full contact with the fried paste, because without that contact the duck's rendered fat cannot begin to integrate into the curry base and the richness that defines the dish is lost. Press gently so the paste grips the skin rather than sitting loosely around it. Move on when each piece is evenly slicked and coloured.
4. 4
   Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer — a rolling boil would tighten the duck flesh and drive the coconut milk to oiliness before the flavours have had time to marry. Add the cubed pineapple, halved cherry tomatoes, and lychee, then simmer for 15 minutes so the duck's fat clouds and enriches the milk visibly while the fruit softens slightly at the edges and still holds its shape.
5. 5
   Season with fish sauce and palm sugar, then taste repeatedly, adjusting in small increments so you can hear each register speak in turn — the salt of the fish sauce, the sweetness of the palm sugar, the acid of the pineapple and tomato, the richness of the duck fat in the coconut milk. The curry is correctly seasoned when no single note dominates and the four registers resolve into one coherent flavour.
6. 6
   Remove from the heat, then scatter over the kaffir lime leaf chiffonade, sliced red chillies, and Thai sweet basil leaves so the residual heat wilts rather than cooks them, keeping the basil bright green and fragrant. Serve immediately.