Thai · Central Thai
Gang Ped Pet Yang — Red Curry with Roasted Duck / แกงเผ็ดเป็ดย่าง
Red curry with roasted duck is one of the most celebrated dishes of Thai-Chinese cooking — the duck is first roasted (either Chinese-style with five-spice and honey or Thai-style with coriander root and white pepper), then jointed and simmered in a red curry sauce. The combination of the already-roasted duck's rendered fat and Chinese spice notes with the coconut-curry base creates a dish of unusual complexity. The duck fat enriches the curry sauce far beyond what a fresh-cooked duck would achieve. Lychees (fresh or canned), cherry tomatoes, and pineapple are the standard fruit additions — their sweetness and acid balance the rich duck fat and chilli heat.
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- 10 · coconut cream, coconut milk, red curry paste, lychees, cherry tomatoes, fresh pineapple, palm sugar, makrut lime leaves, stalk lemongrass, thai sweet basil leaves
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
½
Chinese BBQ roasted duck (siu laap)
jointed into serving pieces, skin on
Your own market
400 ml
coconut cream
full-fat
Not yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
200 ml
coconut milk
Origin · Sri Lankan coconut (Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka), Sri LankaNot yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
60 g
red curry paste
slightly more than standard for a chicken curry
Not yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
200 g
lychees
fresh or canned, drained; halved if large
Origin · New ZealandNot yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
150 g
cherry tomatoes
whole
Origin · ItalyNot yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
150 g
fresh pineapple
cut into bite-sized pieces
Not yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
30 ml
fish sauce
adjust to taste at the end
Your own market
10 g
palm sugar
or light brown sugar
Origin · IndonesiaNot yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
6
makrut lime leaves
torn, central rib removed
Origin · ThailandNot yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
1
stalk lemongrass
bruised
Origin · ThailandNot yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
10 g
fresh red chillies
sliced diagonally, for finishing
Your own market
15 g
Thai sweet basil leaves
picked
Not yet within reach of Halfmoon Bay · each reach is counted
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The Method
1
Place a wok or wide saucepan over medium-high heat, add the coconut cream, and bring it to a vigorous simmer, stirring regularly, until it splits — the cream separates into clear oil and white solids and the surface appears greasy and curdled. This matters because only split coconut cream will fry the curry paste properly; unbroken cream steams the paste rather than toasting it, and the finished curry will taste raw and flat.
From the canon — The making of a Thai curry paste in a granite mortar — the sequential pounding of aromatics from hardest and driest to most moist, each added only when the p… Curry Paste: Pounding Technique (Khreuang Gaeng) →
2
Add the red curry paste to the split coconut cream and fry, pressing and folding the paste continuously into the oily cream, until the paste is deeply fragrant and the oil runs an even brick-red — you are cooking out the raw edge of the shrimp paste and dried spices, which would otherwise sit harsh and unresolved in the finished dish. The sauce must be concentrated and fully aromatic at this stage; if it is not, the duck fat absorbed in the next step will dilute rather than enrich.
From the canon — The foundational red curry paste of the Thai kitchen — built on dried long red chillies soaked and pounded with lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime zest, coria… Red Curry Paste (Krung Gaeng Phet Daeng) →
3
Add the bruised lemongrass, coconut milk, fish sauce, and palm sugar, stir to combine, then add the duck pieces. This is where the dish lives or dies: hold the heat to a steady simmer of 8–10 minutes, not a rolling boil, so the rendered fat from the pre-roasted duck bleeds slowly into the sauce and the aromatics have time to bind with it — a rapid boil drives off that fragrant fat before it integrates, leaving the sauce thin and one-dimensional. The sauce will visibly deepen in colour and take on a glossy, fat-enriched sheen as it reaches the right point.
From the canon — Fresh coconut milk — extracted from freshly grated coconut flesh rather than purchased in a can — and the technique of 'cracking' it: heating the thick, fat-… Coconut Milk: Cracking, Frying, Reducing →
4
Add the makrut lime leaves, tearing them lightly so their fragrance releases into the simmering sauce rather than sitting inert on the surface. Continue to simmer until the duck is heated through to the bone and the sauce coats a spoon with a distinct, unctuous body — the spice notes of the five-spice roasting should be detectable beneath the coconut and chilli.
5
Add the lychees, cherry tomatoes, and pineapple and simmer for no more than 3–4 minutes, so the fruit warms through and barely softens — the tomatoes yielding at the skin but still holding their shape — because fruit kept beyond this point dissolves and its sugars turn bitter, muddying the clean sweetness the dish depends on. Pull the wok from the heat the moment the tomato skins just begin to wrinkle.
6
Taste and adjust: the duck and its existing marinade carry significant salt, so add fish sauce only if the balance requires it. The finished curry should read rich, spiced, and faintly sweet, with a clean acid finish from the fruit; scatter sliced red chillies and Thai sweet basil leaves over the surface and serve immediately.
From the canon — Fish sauce — nam pla — is the universal salt of the Thai kitchen. Fish Sauce (Nam Pla): Selection and Use →
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Half a freshly roasted Chinese BBQ duck (siu laap) from a specialist roast-meat house, selected for lacquered, honey-caramelised skin and visible fat rendering; paired with house-made red curry paste ground to order from dried chillies, galangal, and fresh kaffir lime rind.
02
Estate — Whole Chinese BBQ duck portioned at home, with a good commercial red curry paste — one with visible whole spice texture and a deep brick-red colour rather than a smooth, uniform paste.
03
Market — Supermarket Chinese roasted duck or Thai-style roasted duck from a market stall; standard commercial red curry paste adjusted upward in quantity to compensate for lower aromatic intensity.
04
House — Packaged roasted duck (chilled or reheated) with a mid-range supermarket red curry paste; canned lychees and canned pineapple in place of fresh fruit — serviceable, though the fat-spice exchange that defines the dish is reduced.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The coconut cream has split: the surface is visibly oily, the cream separated into clear fat and white solids before the paste is added.
◇Smell. After frying the paste, the wok smells deeply of toasted dried chilli and galangal with no raw, sharp edge remaining.
◇Sight. During the duck simmer, the sauce develops a glossy, fat-enriched sheen and visibly deepens in colour as the roasting fats render in.
◇Touch. The cherry tomatoes yield at the skin under the gentlest pressure but hold their shape — the signal that fruit has been in the curry long enough and no longer.
◇Where it lives or dies. The rendered fat from the pre-roasted duck must bleed slowly into the curry sauce over a steady simmer — a rapid boil drives off the aromatic fat before it integrates, and no subsequent adjustment recovers the depth the dish requires.
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VI
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