Ingredients
1. Duck – 1 kg, cleaned, washed and cut into medium-sized pieces (do not remove the skin)
2. Onion – 2 medium, thinly sliced
Ginger –garlic paste or crushed ginger and garlic – 2 tbsp
Green chilies – 4 – 5 , slit
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
3. Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Kashmiri chilly powder (good quality) – 1.5 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1.5 tbsp
Fenugreek powder – 1 tiny pinch (optional)
Garam masala powder – 1 tbsp (Recipe below)
4. Tomato – 2 small, thinly sliced
5. Coconut milk – 3/4 – 1 cup, medium-thick (you can use canned coconut milk or coconut milk powder)
6. Salt – To taste
7. Coconut oil – 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp
Dried red chilies – 1 – 2, broken
Thenga kothu / sliced coconut – 1/4 cup
8. Whole spices – cloves – 4 – 5 , cardamom – 1, cinnamon stick – 1 inch, vazhanayila / bay leaves – 1 – 2, slightly crushed whole pepper corns – 1/2 tsp
9. Hot water – 1/2 cup
Vinegar – 1 tsp
Method
1. Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan / cheena chatti over medium-high heat. Splutter mustard seeds and fry dried red chilies and sliced coconut / thenga kothu until golden colored. Add the whole spices and stir until fragrant or for a few seconds.
2. Add ginger-garlic paste, green chilies, curry leaves and thinly sliced onion. When the onion turns light golden, bring down the heat to low and add the spice powders numbered 3. Mix well and saute until the raw smell of spices is gone, about 1 – 2 minutes.
3. Add 1/2 cup hot water, 1 tsp vinegar, sliced tomato pieces, few curry leaves, enough salt and the duck pieces. Mix well. Bring to a boil and bring down the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until the duck is half-done, stirring once or twice in between. Open and cook for 5 minutes at high heat until the gravy almost dries up, stirring in between so that it won’t stick to the bottom.
4. Add 1 cup coconut milk. Mix well. The curry would be light brown or orangish in color now. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to medium-low. Continue cooking for another 10 – 15 minutes, until the duck is completely cooked, curry changes to a brown color and oil starts floating on top. (The coconut milk should get cooked and release coconut oil). Switch off. Serve this super-delicious nadan tharavu curry with porotta, appam, chapathis, puttu, pathiri, rice etc.
For the garam masala powder
Fennel seeds – 2 tsp
Cloves – 7
Green Cardamom – 5
Whole black pepper corn – 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon stick – 1/2 inch
Star anise – 1 small
Kus kus – 1 tsp (optional)
Grind all the above ingredients to a powder.
looks awesome n mouthwatering curry…
super delicious n yummy
Mouthwatering,looks so yummy.
it says “donot remove skin”.is there any reason for that? usually I remove skin of duck (which takes a lot of time) and wondering if the skin makes any difference?
Beena Nair,
This dish will be much tastier if you cook the duck with skin on..
I made duck curry for the first time using your recipe and it was delicious. My family loved it so much that l am making it again today. Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes.
Prepared and ate duck curry for first time … it was very yummy.
Thanks for the feedback, Anu! Glad you enjoyed it..
Can I substitute with chicken in place of duck ?
sure you can..
Yummilicious