Posh Curry – duck tikka masala

Anyone who knows me knows that Friday night is curry night – every now and then for a treat I make this duck tikka masala. It’s not that different from chicken tikka masala except by serving the meat and sauce separately, it looks a bit posh and you can keep the meat pink.

If you’d like to make it, here’s the recipe.

First, marinate the duck a few hours in advance (I sometimes use lamb too) with:
juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp root ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 garlic cloves, finely grated or crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chilli powder
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp turmeric
5 curry leaves
½ tsp mustard seeds
salt & pepper

Next, make the masala sauce (this is Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, which I first made in November 2012 and now only loosely follow):
Fry a sliced onion until soft.
Then add:
– 6 crushed garlic cloves and 1 tbsp of freshly grated ginger.
After leaving to cook for a minute, add the rest of the spices
– 1 tbsp ground coriander
– 1/2 tsp turmeric
– 1 tsp chilli powder
– 2 tbsp paprika
– a squeeze of tomato puree (around 1 tbsp)

After a moment of heating the spices, mix in 4 tbsp of yoghurt, 1 tbsp at a time to make sure it doesn’t curdle.

Then, add 2 medium chopped tomatoes (or 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes), leave in the pan until they soften a little then add 200ml of chicken stock, salt and pepper, bring to the boil and simmer until it thickens – around 20minutes.

In the meantime cook the duck – first on a low heat skin side down to render the fat then on a high heat. Once the skin crisps up, turn it over and cook for around 4-5 minutes for it to remain pink on the inside (or however you like it).

Serve sliced, with the masala sauce on the side and with rice and naan.

Madhur Jaffrey’s Tikka Masala

After watching Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation, our mouths were salivating at her chicken tikka masala, a dish that doesn’t have a lot of respect but I really like, especially with a little extra kick.

The recipe is split into 2; first the chicken tikka, which is marinated pieces of chicken (I used breast) cooked on skewers in a tandoor oven, or under the grill in a normal oven, which is what I did. Ideally you marinate the chicken for 4-6 hours, I prepared mine on Monday night to cook on Tuesday evening.

First, leave the chicken in bowl with 3 tbsp of lemon juice and salt for 20 minutes, then add all the below ingredients and refrigerate until time to cook.

1 tbsp root ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 garlic cloves, finely grated or crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chilli powder
6 tbsp cream
½ tsp garam masala

I was out of ground cumin so used cumin seeds instead, which were really nice when cooked.

So when I got in yesterday evening I made my massala sauce by warming coconut oil on a medium to low heat and frying sliced onion until soft (around 7 mins). Then I added:
– 6 crushed garlic cloves and 1 tbsp of freshly grated ginger.
After leaving to cook for a minute, add the rest of the spices
– 1 tbsp ground coriander
– 1/2 tsp turmeric
– 1 heaped tsp chilli and a little extra for luck (this turned out to be too much)
– 2 tsp paprika

After a moment of heating the spices, mix in 4 tbsp of yoghurt, 1 tbsp at a time to make sure it doesn’t curdle.

Then, add 2 medium chopped tomatoes (or 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes), leave in the pan until they soften a little then add 350ml of chicken stock and a little salt, bring to the boil and simmer for 20minutes with the lid on.

In the 20 minutes while the massala is simmering cook the skewered chicken tikka under a grill, with the little sunflower oil brushed on top.

Once cooked, put the chicken tikka in the massala with half a tsp of garam massala and eat.

As I was worried about mine not being spicy enough I deviated from the suggested 3/4 tsp of chilli powder and added 1 heaped teaspoon and a bit, which was way too much. Even after adding some cream to mellow the flavour I was still sweating a little eating this! The learning point is not to be to heavy handed with the chilli powder, keep tasting and only add more if needed – oops!