The Surprise Curry

People can be so heartless. Not long ago, I found myself on my way into work, about to cross over the Barge bridge by The Grand Canal. There was a massive traffic jam and a huge amount of noise brought on by the honking of many horns. It was only upon closer inspection did I realize the cause of all this road rage. A mother duck who was trying to walk her 12 little ducklings across the busy intersection.

Everyone could see what was going down, but nobody bothered their holes to help the little buggers out. Their mammy already made good headway and was a few feet onto the road. Yet shockingly, nobody came to their assistance.  I threw down me bike, walked into the middle of the road and went to assist the wee birdies by stopping the oncoming cars. Once I nudged one or two of them off the path, the rest followed suit.

After some dirty looks and impolite hand gestures from yours truly,  the drivers around us had discontinued their aggressive bleeting.  I held up the mother’s march from the rear, making sure they had a safe passage across the hectic street, snapping away on my mobile to capture the moment.

Success! The mother and all 12 of her lovely little ducklings got across without any issues!

It was at that point that all her offspring started jumping into the water. Mission fully accomplished. Her newborn could embrace the wild and wonderful world around them, but in the more natural habitat of the Grand Canal.

I felt satisfied that they had achieved satisfactory safety, so I reached into the murky waters, grabbed the mother duck by the beak and quickly strangled her.  With a nice, fat warm duck on my shoulders  I rushed home to pluck the beast’s feathers and prepare dinner. That night we feasted on:

THE SURPRISE CURRY

INGREDIENTS:

• Get a  roasted duck from an Asian Food Store. Get it de-boned and cut it into 1 inch strips
• 2 1/2 cups canned coconut milk
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• Juice of half  a lime
• 1 cup of chopped fresh pineapple
• 1 cup of chopped aubergine
• 4 fresh kaffir lime leaves, torn roughly
• 2 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp of red curry paste Coriander leaves to garnish
• 1/2 cup of chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon of peanut oil
• Coriander leaves to garnish

METHOD

-  Put vegetable oil into wok over medium heat and fry up the curry paste.

- Add 3/4 cups coconut milk and stir to mix thoroughly and then throw in the duck.

- Lash in the remaining coconut milk, water,  aubergine, tomatoes, pineapple, kaffir lime leaves, salt, sugar and fish sauce.  Bring to a boil and remove quickly from the heat. Serve it with some boiled or steamed jasmine rice and garnish with some coriander leaves.