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.
**The duck:** Pre-roasted whole duck from a Chinese-Thai roast meat shop (or a home-roasted duck) — the Chinese roasting produces a deep, lacquered, Maillard-rich skin and a fat-rich meat. Cut the roasted duck into serving portions (through the bone) — legs, thighs, and breast sections. **The fruit:** Fresh pineapple: cubed, firm. Cherry tomatoes: halved. Fresh lychee (or canned, well-drained): providing sweetness. The combination of these three fruits provides: pineapple (sharp, aromatic sweetness), cherry tomato (tartaric acid and freshness), lychee (sweet, floral, tropical). **The preparation:** 1. Crack coconut cream. 2. Fry red curry paste — a generous quantity (the duck's rich fat requires more paste to cut through it). 3. Add the pre-roasted duck portions. Coat in the paste. 4. Add thin coconut milk. 5. Add the fruit. 6. Simmer 15 minutes — the duck is already cooked; the simmer is for integration and for the duck's fat to release into the coconut milk. 7. Season: fish sauce, palm sugar. 8. Finish: kaffir lime leaf chiffonade, fresh red chilli, Thai sweet basil. **Why the combination works:** The duck's rich fat (rendered Chinese-roasted duck is extremely fatty) distributes into the coconut milk during the simmer, producing a curry of extraordinary richness. The pineapple and tomatoes provide acid counterbalance. The lychee's sweetness echoes the palm sugar in the curry's seasoning.
David Thompson, *Thai Food* (2002); *Thai Street Food* (2010)