Start by preparing all the ingredients by washing, chopping everything as needed. Set aside for later. In a pan toast two teaspoons of mustard seeds (you can use these untoasted too). Bruise and cut into 2-3 pieces one lemongrass stick.
Cooking the rice
Cook rice as per pack instructions and here is how to cook the perfect rice for this curry. Use 150 ml coconut milk as part of the water. I cook this rice with less water as I like it nice ' n fluffy. Here is how I make the perfect rice for this curry. I use one part of rice with 1 ¼ water, cover it with a nice lid, place it on fire and when the water starts to boil, turn the heat all the way down and cook for 7 minutes. *note - I always use the same mug or cup to add both the rice and the water. So, for 1 cup of rice, you will use 1¼ cup of water.
To the rice, just before starting to cook, add one or two tablespoons of coconut cream (from the thick cream topping the coconut milk) 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut, the toasted mustard seeds and one de-seeded, finely chopped red chilly.
To make the curry
While the rice is cooking, start cooking the curry. Simply place a deeper pan on medium heat.
Into the pan add the diced duck meat along with the chopped shallots. No need for oil since the duck meat is quite fatty itself. Add 50ml (¼ cup) water to get it started if you wish and cover. Cook for 10 minutes or so.
While the meat is cooking and begins to smell unbelievably good, chop and prepare all the other ingredients. The only ingredient that needs special treatment is the lemongrass. I love this flavour so much that I can't do with adding it to the curry and then removing it later. I smash it in a mortar with the pestle and get it smashed as well as possible.
Add the roughly chopped green beans to the meat and cook for 2-3 min covered. I like my beans a little crunchy - cook for longer if you want them really soft.
Remove the lid and add the grated ginger, the pestled lemongrass, coconut milk, curry powder, salt, garlic, pepper, chilly and lichées if you choose to add those. Cook for a further 5-6 min uncovered on medium heat. Covered or uncovered. Add the lemon juice, mix and turn the heat off.
Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve on that lovely fluffy coconutty rice.
A M A Z I N G! Enjoy this really lovely duck curry dish!
Notes
The French green beans - can obviously be frozen if you don't have fresh ones but I do prefer fresh ones as they do have that crispiness rather than the chewiness of the frozen. Any would do though.Rice- oh, I love this rice cooked this way (nice and fluffy) but if you don't like coconut just steam jasmine rice which, to me, it's the most delicious and nice rice there is. Beautiful!Duck! I always use a crown as I love a bit of bone. It gives your curry that perfect tasty flavors, that deliciousness that boneless meat will never manage to give.If you don't like bones, simply buy the duck breasts already de-boned. Coconut milk - chose a regular one, not a light version as you will need some of the cream or the butter layer at the top of the can for the rice.