SpiceLines

A rich duck curry, served with basmati rice, gets an unexpected lift from a
sweet and hot cranberry chutney with ginger, tangerines and walnuts.

We’re deep into fall: The lawn is a crunchy tapestry of red, gold and brown leaves. Gusts of wind set them swirling like cyclones, only to resettle in drifts around the trunks of nearly bare maple and crab apple trees. The last of the Canadian geese, honking plaintively, straggle south over the pasture. The scent of wood smoke perfumes the chill morning air. In the kitchen, it’s time for duck…

In her new memoir, Climbing the Mango Trees, Madhur Jaffrey writes that the men in her family were avid hunters. Winter dinners in India usually included game from the day’s outing: “There might be duck or partridge or quail, some with pellets still inside them, cooked with rich cardamom-flavored sauces; or my father’s favorite, leg of wild boar, cooked for a whole day in beer.” These were served with cauliflower and peas, spinach, or carrots with fenugreek greens, along with phulkas, “little puffed whole wheat breads” similar to chapatis.

Upon reading this, I immediately flipped to the recipes at the end of the book and, yes, there was one for duck curry cooked in medley of warming spices. The dish is sublime: A large Pekin duck, cut into pieces, is slowly simmered in a sauce enriched with creamy yogurt and a fragrant blend of sweet and pungent spices—ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and Kashmiri red-chili powder—until it is falling-off-the-bone tender. The curry is quite good served over basmati rice, but even better with the delicate phulkas Jaffrey recommends. Phulkas are easy to make and can be puffed up on a hot griddle just before serving the curry.

A spoonful of sweet chutney is a delicious counterpoint to the spices in the curry. You can always open a jar of mango chutney, but, as Thanksgiving approaches—why not take a more adventurous route and serve Laxmi Hiremath’s sweet and hot cranberry chutney with ginger and tangerines from her book, The Dance of Spices?

Classic Duck Curry with Coriander and Cardamom
(adapted from Madhur Jaffey in Climbing the Mango Trees)

To serve 4

Ingredients:

4-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
6 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (see note)
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
2-inch stick cinnamon, crushed
1 teaspoon Kashmiri red-chili powder (or 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons olive or peanut oil
6-pound duck (see below)
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
8 tablespoons plain yogurt
1-3/4 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Method:

1. Have your butcher cut the duck into 8 pieces: 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, and 4 breast quarters. Reserve the wings (discard the tips), back, sternum and gizzard for the sauce, if desired. Remove all the fat and skin that hangs from the sides or ends of the duck, leaving only the skin that sits on top of the meat.
2. Put the ginger, garlic and 1/4 cup water into a blender. Blend thoroughly until you have a smooth paste. Set aside.
3. Combine the coriander, cumin and cardamom seeds, cloves and cinnamon in a clean coffee or spice grinder. Grind as finely as possible. Empty the spice mixture into a small bowl. Add the red-chili powder, turmeric, vinegar and about 3 tablespoons of water to make a thick, dryish paste. (The paste may be very liquid at first, but it will thicken after a few minutes.)
4. Pour the oil into a large sauté or frying pan and set over medium heat. When it is hot, put in as many duck pieces as will fit easily, skin side down. Brown the duck on one side. Turn and brown the other side. Remove to a bowl. Continue to brown all the duck pieces in the same way.
5. Add the onion to the same hot oil. Stir and fry until the onion pieces turn reddish. Add the ginger-garlic paste and turn the heat to medium low. Stir and cook about 2 minutes, then add the spice paste, stirring and cooking over medium-low heat for another minute.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of yogurt. Stir and cook until it seems to disappear. Add the remaining yogurt in the same way, a tablespoon at a time. Now put in all the browned duck and any juices that may have accumulated in the bowl, the salt and 2-3/4 cups water. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover and turn the heat to low, and simmer gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the duck is tender. Stir gently every 10 minutes or so during the cooking period, turning the duck pieces over now and then.
7. Lift out the duck pieces and place them in a bowl. Tilt the cooking pan and spoon off as much of the fat as possible from the sauce. Pour the defatted sauce into a blender and blend very fine. Pour this sauce through a coarse sieve or strainer right over the duck pieces, pressing down on the sieve to extract all the possible juices.
8. The duck may be reheated and served the same day, or it may be refrigerated and served a day or two later. Serve with basmati rice or phulkas (see recipe below) and a spoonful of sweet chutney.

Note: Cardamom seeds removed from their shells can be found in Indian markets or ordered from www.penzeys.com.