Duck Roast Gravy (Tharavu Roast curry) - A Christmas Savoury delicacy

In the spirit of the festive season, I am trying to bring to you as many recipes as possible to help you prepare for your big Christmas lunch or dinner! If you are a member of my Facebook page, you would have seen some of the posted recipes related to Christmas. If you have not yet seen our facebook page, please visit here and 'Like' the page so as to have it bookmarked. Spread the word with your family and friends as well.

Duck roast is often taken as an option to the western Christmas tradition of Turkey Roast especially in Christian families in the South of India in the state of Kerala. Duck Roast would often be accompanied with Appam,  either 'KallAppams' (Indian Toddy Pancakes) or 'PaalAppams' (Milkhoppers). You could also serve this with Kappa Vevichathu (Tapioca Steamed and Fried) or Rice of your choice or Rice Iddiappam (which looks like miniature rice noodles). Hopefully I will post the Kappa Vevichathu recipe very soon :) Although Duck Roast is normally accompanied with Appams or Fried Rice even during Christmas.

I hope you enjoy this creation of mine. Sorry I don't have better pictures of the process as this was taken way earlier than I had intended to start this blog. I will definitely upload better pictures should I try this again. Hope you are having a great Christmas season!

I meant to post this recipe last week but my system decided to have some technical issues at about the same time. It is resolved now so hope I get time (amidst all the baking and cooking) to post as many recipes to Christmas and even the New Year 2014 to help you design your dinners/lunch/desserts :)

You need:

• 1 kg Duck, cleaned well (soak for at least 20-30 minutes in turmeric, salt and vinegar), fat removed, skinned and cut into medium pieces*

These ingredients are required for the Marinade:

• 2 tbsp Red chili powder
• 2 tbsp Coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

Remaining ingredients required for the recipe:

• 2 roughly torn  long dried red chilies
• 1 sprig of curry leaves
• 6-8 green chilies, slit lengthwise
• 2 tbsp of cooking oil (although you should use coconut oil if you want it to taste as close as possible to the traditional version)
• 2-3 large purple onions, diced finely
• 10-12 small red onions, diced finely
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes, finely sliced
• 1" ginger, finely diced
• 6-8 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 3-4 tbsp Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp  Turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp Coriander powder
• 3 tbsp of Red Chili powder
• Coconut milk - 2 extracts : 1st extract 1 cup and 2nd extract 2 cups. You can try the Homemade version here as I did for this recipe. Just make sure to adjust the water accordingly as required for this recipe.
• Salt to taste

*Optional: you can leave a few pieces with skin on possibly the wings or even portion of the legs/breast

The Make:

Preparation Time: 20 minutes | Cooking Time: 1 hour | Serves: 5-6 adults

It is best to leave a few pieces with the skin on and you can opt to take it out later to add some flavour of the duck fat in the dish. I have tried it without as well and I can vouch for the former. You can take off the excess oil off the top of the finished dish. Make sure before marinating to drain out any water content from the duck meat.

Marinate the duck meat for 4-6 hours. You can choose to do it for longer or lesser. The more you marinate the duck meat, the more flavourful the end result. I ended up marinating my Christmas duck roast for 8-10 hrs. I had a huge banquet of dishes for this particular Christmas :) Trust me not a drop of the gravy was left to the next meal let alone the next day.

1. Heat the oil in a clay pot or deep-bottomed wok or even a pressure cooker and splutter some mustard seeds.
2. Toss in the curry leaves, red onions, dried red chilies, ginger and garlic and saute well for 2-3 minutes.
3. Next add the diced purple onions and saute till translucent.
4 .Toss in the green chilies and saute till the onions turn lightly brown.
5. Add the marinated duck meat and salt. Cover and cook for 40 minutes on medium-low heat. If you are using the pressure cooker, make sure to add enough water to just about cover the meat or about a cup lower as the duck fat would also release making the gravy very watery. It should cook for about 5 whistles on medium-high. You would have half-cooked duck meat at this stage using either of the methods.
6. In a bowl, mix the turmeric, red chili, coriander powders and garam masala and add the 2nd extract coconut milk bit by bit mixing well.
7. To the half-cooked duck, add the 2nd extract spiced coconut milk on low heat and mix well. Cover and cook until the gravy has just thickened and the meat cooked.

If the duck meat is of good quality it would be soft and tender.

8. Lastly but more importantly add the thick 1st coconut milk extract and mix gently. Bring to almost a boil and set aside.

Serve with hot Appams or Fried Rice or Kappa any other flatbread/rice of your choice.

Bon Appetit! Tis' the season to be jolly falalalalalalala....Seasons Greetings all!

Beef Roast/Beef Dry Fry - Beef Ularthiyadu/Olaythiyadu - Hubby's Special!!

Anup made one of his mom's recipes for Beef Ularthiyadu which translates to Beef roast or Beef dry fry. He made this when Uncle Soman, Aunty Anne, Anu and Rohit visited our home on a weekend a couple of months ago. It was definitely amazing as we pretty much wiped the dish clean :)

I was only the helper this time just to get the spices ground or for the dicing and the clean up after. This is all him and his mum :) My MIL makes the best beef and cutlets by the way. Of course I love my mom's but they both are aces in their own way.

What you need:

• 1 kg Beef, diced into cubes (washed and cleaned in 1/2 tbsp turmeric powder and 2 tbsp vinegar)
• 1 coconut, sliced finely into squares
• 2 onions, finely diced or 1 cup of red onions, chopped (red onions are preferred)
• 1 sprig of curry leaves (washed in vinegar and turmeric and air dried)
• Ginger-garlic (10 cloves of garlic and 2 tbsp of ginger - chopped finely)
• 2 tbsps Coriander powder
• 2 tbsp Chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Garam Masala
• 1-2 tsps of Pepper powder
• 11/2 tbsp of cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp+ drinking water

The Make

Cooking Time: 1 hour | Preparation Time: 10 minutes | Serves 6-7

1. Drain the cleaned beef in a colander until all the water is completely drained.

2 . Meanwhile, fry the coconut in 1/2 tbsp of the oil till golden brown and add a pinch of turmeric. Set aside.

3. Add 1/2 tbsp of the oil to a wok and splutter the mustard seeds.

4. Add 1 of the diced onions and saute till golden brown. Then add the ginger and garlic and saute for a minute or until the garlic is slightly brown.

5. Make a paste with some water of some of the dry spices (11/2 tbsp of coriander powder, 11/2 tbsp of chili powder, 3/4 tbsp of Garam Masala and  1/2  tbsp of salt).

6. Add the masala paste to the wok and saute until the masala is cooked or leaves the sides of the wok.

7. Cook the raw beef with the prepared coconut, cooked masala and curry leaves in the pressure cooker for at least 45 minutes (5-6 whistles).

Tip: Make sure you have added enough water to cover half the beef content. It does not have to cover the entire beef content as this a dry fry.

8. In the wok, heat the remaining oil and saute the remaining diced onions till golden brown.

9. Next add in the remaining coriander powder, chili powder, garam masala and the pepper powder and cook the masala.

10. Lower heat to low and add in the cooked beef and fry till the residual water gets absorbed.

Serve hot with a flatbread of your choice - Paratha, chappatis or rotis, appam or rice.

Tip: You can subsitute with chicken or soya chunks. Soya chunks actually work really well with this recipe!

Bon Appetit!

Traditional Appams ('KallAppam') - (Indian Toddy Pancakes)

'KallAppam'(Toddy Pancakes) - 'Kall' meaning 'Toddy' and Appam looks like pancakes. Appams can also be made as 'VellaAppam' which is made out of sugar and yeast. The Toddy, Sugar and Yeast are used for the fermentation process. We used to make 'VellaAppam' earlier. However due to the side effects of Yeast which was not agreeable to my Dad's diet owing to the side effects of yeast, we discontinued making 'VellaAppam'. Hence began the make of 'Kall'Appams at home. It is tastier and is one of my Mum's creations liked by all her children, family and guests at home.

Cooking Time: 15 minutes|Makes 12 appams|Preparation Time(includes fermentation time):14 hrs

You need:

• 1-1.5 cups of long grained rice (basmati rice) or raw (white) rice
• 2 cups of 'Kall' (Toddy)
• 1 cup of cooked rice (parboiled rice - which is fatter white rice than the basmati or long grained rice and is slightly shorter as well)

Raw Rice

* I will try and add pictures of the different rice types when I can to avoid any confusion

Method:

1. Soak 1-1.5 cup of the rice grains for a few hours(6 hrs - so if you soak it in the morning, you can grind it in the evening).

2. Grind the soaked rice with 2 cups of kallu. Do not throw away the water used to soak the rice grains. You may need it to grind the rice as required to grind the rice to a fine paste.

3. Add 1 cup cooked rice to the mix and grind well. Keep stored overnight. Use in the morning.

In the morning,

4. Heat a non-stick deep bottomed small pan(usually called 'AppamChatti' -(Pancake pan) - you can also get this pot made of iron)

5. Grease the pan with a dipped kitchen paper towel in oil. Repeat this between making each appam.

6. Pour the appam mixture (1/4 cup quantity) using a rounded spoon/ladle in the center of the pan.

'AppamChatti', the rounded spoon, wooden spatula

7. Using the handles of the pan, turn the appam batter in the pan in a clockwise fashion leaving the remaining batter to drop to the center of the pan . You will find the center is thicker than the sides.

8. Lower to medium-low heat and cover with the lid. It is important that you find the right pan(rounded pan or Appam Chatti) to get the desired result.

9.  After about a minute, your first appam should be ready. You will find the center is cooked and not goo-ey and the sides are crisp. Take it out with a wooden or non-stick spatula.

10. Repeat till the batter is used up or required quantity reached. You can also store the remaining batter in the fridge for use on the next day or to make Velaiappams (sweet appams). I will share this recipe with you the next time when I am left with extra batter.

Enjoy the Appams with Fish Mappas or Chicken Stew. Bon Appetit!