Cooking in
Western Australia
Thai · Bangkok
Gaeng Ped Ped Yang (Red Curry with Roasted Duck)
A red curry of roasted duck in coconut milk, with fresh pineapple, cherry tomatoes, and grapes (or lychee) — the fruit's sweetness and the duck's richness creating a sweet, rich, aromatic combination that is unique in the Thai curry canon. Gaeng ped ped yang is a Thai-Chinese Bangkok preparation — the roasted duck (ped yang — the Chinese-style whole roasted duck available from Chinese-Thai duck shops throughout Bangkok) brings its own flavour and fat to the coconut milk curry, creating a richness that chicken or pork cannot match.
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Cook
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
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
Your own market
400 ml
coconut cream
for cracking
600 ml
coconut milk
thin; added after paste frying
Origin · Sri Lankan coconut (Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka), Sri Lanka
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
Origin · Italy
150 g
fresh lychee
peeled and stoned; or canned lychee, well-drained
Origin · New Zealand
2 tbsp
fish sauce
for seasoning; adjust to taste
Your own market
1 tbsp
palm sugar
for seasoning
Origin · Indonesia
To finish
6
kaffir lime leaves
finely sliced into chiffonade
2
fresh red chillies
sliced on the diagonal
Your own market
1 handful
Thai sweet basil
leaves picked
Origin · New Zealand
II
The Method
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
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.
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
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
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.
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 →
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.
From the canon — Fish sauce — nam pla — is the universal salt of the Thai kitchen. Fish Sauce (Nam Pla): Selection and Use →
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.
From the canon — Kaffir lime leaf (from Citrus hystrix, also called makrut lime) delivers a distinct, double-lobed leaf with an aromatic intensity that dried versions only ap… Kaffir Lime Leaf: Aromatic Principle →
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — A freshly roasted whole ped yang from an established Bangkok-style Chinese-Thai roast meat shop, with deep lacquered skin and visibly rendered subcutaneous fat; fresh pineapple at peak ripeness; fresh lychee in season; house-ground red curry paste.
02
Estate — A home-roasted duck prepared by Chinese roasting method; fresh pineapple and cherry tomatoes of good quality; fresh lychee; a quality commercial red curry paste without preservatives.
03
Market — A quality supermarket whole roasted duck; ripe fresh pineapple; well-drained canned lychee; a reliable commercial red curry paste.
04
House — Any available pre-roasted duck; canned pineapple (drained and firmed), canned lychee, standard cherry tomatoes; commercial red curry paste from a jar.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The coconut cream has separated: a clear ring of coconut oil sits at the surface and the mass is no longer white and emulsified.
◇Smell. The curry paste fried in the cracked cream no longer smells raw; a deep, roasted chilli and galangal fragrance rises from the pan.
◇Sight. Every surface of the duck portions is evenly coated and coloured by the paste before the coconut milk is added.
◇Sight. After 15 minutes of simmering, the coconut milk is visibly enriched and clouded by the duck's rendered fat.
◇Smell. At the finish, the kaffir lime leaf and Thai sweet basil are just wilted and releasing their volatile aromatics — bright green, fragrant, not blackened.
◇Where it lives or dies. The roasted duck must be turned in the fried paste until every lacquered, fat-rich surface is fully coated, so that the duck's rendered fat can integrate into the curry base — without this, the defining richness of the dish is not achieved.
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VI
What to Pour
An off-dry Alsatian Gewurztraminer or Pinot Gris — the residual sweetness mirrors the palm sugar and lychee, while the wine's aromatic intensity meets the kaffir lime and galangal without being overwhelmed by the duck fat. A cold Singha or Chang lager serves equally at the table, cutting the richness with carbonation and neutral bitterness.
The whole pairingPillar VII
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Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
The working kitchen