Thai duck and green bean curry

Duck has to be one of my favourite meats, it's rich, dark, moist and tasty. According to Saint McGee, this richness is down to the the duck's abundant "myoglobin-rich" muscle fibres, a necessity when you need to fly hundreds of miles on the trot. It certainly puts the lazy old chicken to shame.

When out on the town, I can be almost guaranteed to choose duck confit if available, and I really miss the mouth-wateringly crispy Peking Duck that I ate on a regular basis in Hong Kong. However, it's January, and that means not only joining the gym, but replacing crispy skin with veggies and hot, fragrant, metabolism-boosting spiciness.

I adapted this recipe from one I found on the Good Food website. It's one of those slow-cooking, go-and-watch-the-TV-whilst-it-cooks type recipes. It's a new staple of mine and regularly crops up as weekday comfort food.

Thai duck and green bean curry - serves 2

Ingredients

2 duck breasts, without skin
3 tbsp green Thai curry paste
1 tbsp palm sugar (or brown sugar, if you don't have it)
400ml can coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
3 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
100g (1/2 bag) green beans, trimmed and chopped in half
350g bag of fresh bean sprouts
1 red chilli, chopped finely
A handful of chopped fresh coriander, to garnish

1. Fry the duck breasts until they are browned and most of the fat has rendered off. Make sure you use a saute pan or saucepan as it will need to be deep enough to take the liquid ingredients later. Remove to the chopping board and let cool slightly. I usually pour the rendered fat into a jar and save it for other cooking purposes. Like goose fat, it's great for roasties!

2. In the meantime, fry the curry paste and sugar for 1-2 mins in the same pan.

3. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice and lime leaves. Bring to a simmer.

4. Slice the duck breasts into bite size pieces, then add to the simmering coconut milk mixture.

5. Cover the pan and simmer gently for 1 hour.

6. Add the green beans and cook for 10 more minutes. Season with fish sauce and/or palm sugar as necessary.

7. Stir through the bean sprouts and chilli. Cook for 2 more minutes, then serve with shredded coriander and a big heap of steaming jasmine rice.

And now I'm off to the gym to see if I can improve my abundance of myoglobin-rich red muscle fibres. I think I'm more of a chicken though!

The Princess

Let them eat Chicken (and mango, and cauliflower)

Kate Coldrick over at A Merrier World is running a blogging event to publicise the very worthy cause of chicken welfare, so I thought I must join in. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chicken Out campaign really hit home to me, and I now always buy free range chicken. It really does pay off in terms of taste and texture, so the foodie in me is satisfied too.

I used free range chicken breasts from Tesco. They were lovely big, plump breasts (ooh-er!) and stayed tender and moist after cooking too.

Thai Green Chicken & Mango Curry with Spiced Cauliflower (serves 2)

Thai Chicken

2 free range chicken breast, cut into chunks
1 ripe mango, diced
1 tin coconut milk
1 onion
1 large garlic clove
1 green chilli
2 tbsps green Thai curry paste (I use Thai Taste, and freeze the rest in an ice cube tray)
Fish sauce
2 kaffir lime leaves
Vegetable oil


Spiced cauliflower

1/2 a head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli flakes
Olive oil
1 knob butter

Preheat the oven to 180c (fan assisted)

1. Whizz the onion, garlic and green chilli to a paste in the food processor.
2. Heat the vegetable oil and soften the onion, garlic and chilli in the pan with the curry paste.
3. Add the chicken pieces and brown all over.
4. Meanwhile, blanch or steam the cauliflower for a few minutes (I steamed mine in a microwave steamer).
5. Mix the cauliflower spices and chilli with a good pinch of salt.
6. Toss the cauliflower with the knob of butter and splash of olive oil, then with the spices.
7. Pop the cauliflower into the oven in a baking dish for 15 minutes .
8. Add the mango pieces to the browned chicken mixture.
9. Add the coconut milk to the chicken and mango mixture. Add the lime leaves and a splash of fish sauce. Simmer for 15 mins
10. Enjoy! Serve the curry with steamed jasmine rice if you like...

Butternut squash curry with squash seed couscous

I know, I know - more butternut squash! But bear with me, this really is a delicious, seasonal and healthy vegetarian after-work supper.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 butternut squash
6 tomatoes, quartered
1 bag of baby spinach
1 onion, diced
3tsps curry paste (I like madras, but choose any tomato based paste to your taste)
Olive oil
Sea salt
200g couscous
A handful of coriander

1. Peel and cut the butternut squash into chunks. Reserve the seeds, wash them and dry in some kitchen towel.

2. Sweat the onion in some oil for a few minutes until translucent, then add three teaspoonfuls of curry paste and continue to cook for a few more minutes.

3. Add the tomatoes, squash chunks and 200ml of water. Simmer covered for 20 minutes, or until the squash is tender and the tomatoes have broken down.

4. Meanwhile, toss the butternut squash seeds with the salt and olive oil and then grill until they are crispy and golden (watching to make sure they don't burn!).

5. Mix the seeds with the couscous, cover with 250ml boiling water and leave covered for 5 minutes.

6. Mix the spinach into the curry for the last couple of minutes of cooking so that it wilts into the sauce.

7. Break up the couscous with a fork, mix through the coriander and serve with the curry.

Thai cooking with Martha Sherpa

I am exhausted, wiped out, knackered. You see, I'm still recovering from a hard day's chopping, pounding and stir frying with Martha Sherpa.

I enrolled on the one day Thai intensive course - now that my time in Hong Kong is coming to an end I really thought I should learn some Asian cooking whilst I'm out here. If you fancy something more authentically Hong Kong, Martha also teaches Chinese cooking and Dim Sum.

I was slightly put off by the dilapidated exterior of the building when I arrived - however once I was inside the kitchen I was relieved to find that everything was meticulously clean and tidy.

The course was excellent value as there were only two students so we really got a lot of one-on-one attention. My classmate Coco was also from Surrey in the UK so I felt at home right away! Martha is an absolute mine of information and gave us lots of handy hints and tips, plus where in Hong Kong to find all the ingredients and equipment that we would need. I will definitely be visting the WanChai wet market for herbs and Shanghai Street for kitchen tools...

We started the day with three demonstration dishes. First Martha whipped up some Tom Yam Koong, showing us the traditional way to make the dish. The herbs were incredibly fragrant - we learnt how to use lemongrass, galengal and coriander root (not sure how I'm going to find this one back home!). The resulting soup was clear rather than red and milky as you see in restaurants. The flavour was deliciously fresh and hot, yet without being spicy.

Martha also whipped up a couple of fish dishes. Coco and I quivered as we helped to fry one of the unlucky pisceans in a wok full of boiling oil! Still not sure whether I would try this one at home, but the sweet and sticky 3 favour sauce it came with would definitely work for dipping fish or crab cakes. I will be posting a recipe for this one once I've experimented a bit!

Lunchtime was spent tucking in to Martha's freshly made delicacies. Then, armed with huge machetes, it was our turn to do the cooking.

We chopped (finely!), pounded in a pestle and mortar, and stir-fryed until our arms almost dropped off. We were rewarded with delicious Pad Thai, Green Curry and Penang Curry kebabs.

I would definitely recommend Martha's!