For a country that sees a huge variety when it come to food, new explorations or giving a facelift dishes to nothing new. One such meat that’s making waves is the Duck- that’s packed with versatility along with being richer in flavor than chicken or turkey. This bird that rarely tends to be chewy for sure needs much will seasoned hands to play with.
Chef Veena Arora- Chef De Cuisine at The Spice Route, The Imperial who recently launched the ‘Duck Tasting’ believes “ Duck has been my favourite dish as it is nutritious and versatile and I can enjoy it in any form whether in curries or dry roasted, even more during my trips abroad. So my recipes in the Duck Tasting menu made with U.S. Duck features Duck curry, Roasted Duck served with fresh vegetables in rice sheets which is extremely healthy, Duck with rice vermicelli noodles and many more flavourful delights.
After decades of experience in the industry, I realize that going back to our traditional cuisine is something we can never miss out on. So, I decided to look inwards and spotlight various regions of South East Asia while taking inspiration from some of my favorite traditional delicacies like, Mutton pepper fry from Kerala has been revisited as a Duck specialty with Taarav Pepper Fry. Also Sri Lankan Fish Thel Dala which has been extremely popular at The Spice Route, is Duck Thel Dala in this menu, to present something unique, healthy with diverse flavors and ingredients. Moreover, these recipes are a complete departure from the regular ones, generally associated with these regions.
While duck is a complex yet a much fine meat, not to miss the it’s the duck skin that makes it more desirable and can be consumed with the meat, and fat can be used in other dishes as well as to cook its own meat. Manish Mehrotra, Corporate Chef, Indian Accent Restaurants adds “Crispy Duck, pan-roasted shakarkandi chaat is an ideal winter dish. The gamey flavour of duck is generally not suitable to Indian palette, so we club the dish with sweet potatoes (shakarkandi).
The shakarkandi available in India has the texture of regular potatoes with a more pronounced natural sweetness. This makes it perfect to grill, roast or fry as the pieces remain soft in the centre while the edges get browned and charred. The sweet flavour of the shakarkandi complements the gamey flavour of duck.”
For first timers cooking duck may not come that easy and roasting it, is an art all together. The delicate meat needs much attention. Neeraj Tyagi, Director of Culinary at Pullman and Novotel New Delhi Aerocity happily adds “Honk by Pullman, the Pan Asian restaurant serves food from the major rice growing countries of the world including Thailand, Southern and Central China, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia & Burma.
The restaurant is particularly famous for many of its dishes but having the Peking duck is an experience, is an art in itself. It is roasted to perfection in the duck oven as the chef prepares the duck and slices it into small portions for you right in front of your eyes, which is honestly the best part of the experience. The pieces are then rolled up in pancakes with perfect balance of the sauce and dips to form duck rolls. Our Peking duck is served with garlic paste, sugar, hoisin sauce, green onion.”
Duck meat comes with a lot of fat, mostly from its skin. And yes, duck fat that adds to he flavpour is definitely healthy due to it being monounsaturated fat. And this duck fat is mostly the key to this recipe.
Chef Ashish Singh, Corporate Chef, Café Delhi Heights who has designed a special menu this season says “From our Roasted Duck that served with roasted vegetables and mashed potato with your choice of cacciatore or rosemary red wine Jus to the exotic Pasta Pesta Di Aglio Olio E Peperomcino which makes for a brothy Mexican-style jazzed up by the addition of roasted Duck in winter green vegetables and the Warm Winter Greens Duck Pizza which is pretty unique topped with bell peppers, grilled spinach, mushrooms, green onions, green-peas, carrot, broccoli & beans
This bird can be an absolute game change when it comes to exotic meats and with the festive season most hotels seem to have it on the menu. Mr Subhadeep Dutta , General Manager, Goldfinch Hotel Mumbai “With time people have become experimental and Mumbai having a cosmopolitan culture people look out for something new always. So we decided to have duck as great alternate for Chicken. Rendering of meat need lots of concentration and car. We make these duck special curries and other southern dishes on Christmas time, thus we receive lots of order for duck during this time”
For that quick trivia In China, duck signifies freedom, happiness and fidelity.