This classic Thai curry is one of those dishes you would think takes complicated technique and hours to prepare but in fact it’s quite the opposite! This dish is so quick to prepare I’d dare to call it a weeknight meal (but wouldn’t hesitate to serve it to company).

You do need access to a few key ingredients, but lucky for us Chicagoans, we have (at least) 2 great neighborhoods to track these things down: Argyle for north-siders, Chinatown for south-siders.

My first taste of this surprising taste combo was in Paris of all places. Generally on any trip you grow a bit tired of the local food (did I really just say that?). Actually for me it’s more like I can only go so long without Thai food. So in the shadow of the Eiffel tower, with a little dog under the table next to me, I ordered “Roast Duck Red Curry” and tried this famous dish that hails from the days of Imperial Courts in Bangkok. The pineapple perfectly complements the sweetness in the duck (from a Chinese five- spice and molasses preparation). Small grape tomatoes add a surprising pop of acidity, and eggplant adds a touch of silkiness. You get heat from the red curry paste, and of course a touch of sweet from the rich coconut milk and palm sugar.

This dish involves minimal cooking as you buy the duck already roasted. My favorite place to get roast duck is from family- run Sun Wah BBQ (a regular stop on my Argyle tour, famous for their Beijing style roast duck). They have a take-out kitchen in their restaurant where you can order roast duck, have the guys chop it up for you, and you’re on your way in under five minutes. At home you may wish to pull the pieces off the bone, but for the love of God, keep the skin on! This is where the delicious flavors from the multi-step brining/marinating/drying/roasting process are at their best. You should still have your diners watch out for little bone pieces, even if you de-bone, as a few pieces may still hang on. And for those of us too lazy to de-bone, take heart; in Thailand they would leave the pieces on the bone and serve as-is.

Roast ducks at Sun Wah BBQ

The one ingredient you may have trouble finding is kaffir lime leaves. You can omit them if you can’t find them. But they do add that haunting citrus flavor so unique to curries like this one and Panang. I usually have luck getting them at Tai Nam Market on Broadway. Sometimes you have to ask the friendly guys in back for a pack, and sometimes they are out. For the hard-core, get yourself a dwarf tree from Four Winds Growers and grow your own at home. They like our summers and you can keep them over winter in a sunny spot indoors. This way you have your own steady supply for Tom Kha Kai (chicken and coconut milk soup) and curries. A few years ago, Kaffir lime leaves were banned from import into this country for years and were impossible to find. During this time I went through withdrawal symptoms and bought two trees that are now thriving.

Kaffir lime leaves and ingredients for curry

From a technique standpoint there are two things to think about in making this dish. I think the best curries start off with gently frying the curry paste. The traditional method is to “crack” some coconut cream and fry the paste in the oil that naturally separates when you heat coconut cream for a while. But many canned coconut milks will not separate and leave you with the oil to do this. So I usually start my curries with a little coconut oil or vegetable oil (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan, say 1-2 tablespoons) and gently fry the paste. This “wakens up” all the flavors in the paste and also gives a beautiful sheen and color to the finished curry.

The other technique point to keep in mind is seasoning. Cooking to taste is very important with Thai cooking and you want to achieve a harmony with the flavors by balancing sweet, spicy, sour and salty. In this dish, spicy and sweet are the prominent flavors, and of course it’s important to have the right depth of flavor and saltiness from the fish sauce. Students often ask me how they’ll know when there’s enough salt/fish sauce and I generally say if you taste it and feel that “humph, something’s missing” feeling, it usually means you need a dash of fish sauce or pinch of salt. The fish sauce gives the dish backbone and depth of flavor. It should not taste fishy. The level of sweetness is often personal preference, but this dish does lean on the sweet side because of the duck and pineapple. You can always add a touch more palm sugar if you like it a bit more sweet.

This dish is great with steamed jasmine rice and a simple cucumber salad.

Roast Duck Red Curry

Roast Duck Red Curry
Recipe from Rebecca Wheeler
Serves 4

1-2 tablespoons coconut oil or light flavored vegetable cooking oil, such as Grapeseed (not olive oil)
3 tablespoons red curry paste, more if you want the dish spicier (I like Mae Ploy)
2 ½ cups coconut milk (I like Chaokoh)
1 tablespoon palm sugar (you can substitute light brown sugar, but use a bit less)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1-2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (add to taste) (I like Tiparos)
½ Chinese roasted duck, de-boned and cut into bite size chunks
15 cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half if large
1 cup Japanese, Chinese or Thai eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces or fresh sweet peas
1/2 cup large dice fresh pineapple
1 cup bamboo shoots
10 fresh kaffir lime leaves, half torn into pieces, half thinly sliced for garnish
Handful Thai basil leaves, for garnish (optional)

Pre-heat a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the oil and, when hot, add the red curry paste. Stir-fry gently in the oil to release all the aromas, 2-3 minutes. Take care not to burn the paste!

Add the coconut milk and stir to combine. Season the curry sauce with the fish sauce, salt and palm sugar. Taste and adjust as necessary. The sauce should be slightly sweet and have enough saltiness to push all the flavors forward.

Add the torn kaffir lime leaves and eggplant a simmer a few minutes until the eggplant is tender (if using sweet peas instead, don’t add until the last minute). Add the duck and stir well. Add the tomatoes, pineapple, and bring to a simmer for a few minutes to heat through and bring the tomatoes close to bursting. Serve garnished with kaffir lime slices, and Thai basil leaves if using.

Sambar has to be the healthiest soup on the planet; you just feel good eating it. It’s a staple on every South Indian table, and for good reason. The lentils in it give it a creamy, comforting texture, while the vegetables make it a nutritional powerhouse. But it’s the spices that really make the soup. The dish is finished with a tarka: a sizzling, sputtering blend of freshly fried spices poured over the top. Between the smoky chile bits, a spike of lime juice, and a touch of ghee, you have the perfect satisfying soup for winter.

When I visited Kerala, India last fall, everywhere we went there were casual restaurants simply called “Hotels” (which rather confused me).  Hotels are typically vegetarian places where you can eat an abundance of rice, sambar, chutney and vegetable dishes; all scooped out at your whim by a passing server. You eat with your hands from a Thali, a stainless serving tray with small dishes to accommodate the many vegetable offerings. Sambar is often poured over rice and eaten as a kind of stew, but at home I like to eat is as a soup. Either way, you can’t go wrong, and leftovers freeze quite well so I always make extra.

Attempting to eat the traditional way, with fingertips

The vegetables in Sambar can vary to your liking. Onions, radish, peppers, potatoes, okra, tomatoes, and eggplant are but a few options. This recipe is adapted from Julie Sahni, who taught me much of what I know about Indian Cooking. I highly recommend her books as a place to learn more.

Typical restaurant for "meals"

Sambar
Curried lentil and vegetable stew
Recipe adapted from Julie Sahni 
Serves 4
 
For lentils:
3/4 cup raw lentils (yellow or toor dal or pink lentils)
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 ½ teaspoons curry powder (I like the “Sweet Curry” powder from The Spice House)
1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
1 cup sliced onions
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 ½ cups sliced mixed vegetables (Japanese eggplant, radish, green pepper, and zucchini are my favorites)
1-3 tablespoons lime juice, to taste
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste

For spice infused “tarka”:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, such as Grapeseed oil
2 red dry chile pods, broken into bits, seeds discarded
¾ teaspoon brown mustard seeds
½ teaspoon ground fenugreek
¼ teaspoon asafetida
6 kari leaves, fresh or dried
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon ghee or butter

Pick the lentils clean, rinse until the water runs clear, and drain. Add the lentils to a deep saucepan or Dutch oven. Add 3 cups of water and turmeric and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the lentils are soft, tasting to ensure they have softened entirely (about 20 minutes for pink lentils and 45 for yellow or toor dal). Check and add more water while cooking if necessary. Use a whisk or spoon to break apart and puree the lentils. The cooked lentil puree should have the consistency of bean soup.

Add the curry powder, coriander, onion, tomato and sliced vegetables. Mix well and simmer for about 8-10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add a little water if the evaporation is too fast. Stir in the salt. Keep the sambar gently simmering while you make the spice infused tarka.

Heat the oil in a heavy, small saute pan over medium-high heat. Keep a lid handy. When the oil is very hot add the chile bits and mustard seeds and immediately cover the pan (the chile bits will turn dark, this is OK). When the sputtering subsides, turn off the heat and uncover the pan. Carefully stir in the fenugreek, asafetida, and kari leaves and pour over the lentils and vegetables. Add the cilantro, lime juice and ghee or butter, mix well and taste for salt and sour, adjusting with more lime juice and salt as necessary. Serve hot, with rice if desired.

There are times in the summer when my kids talk me into going out for ice cream three times a week. It’s a sure-fire way to make them happy. As a parent, I find it ironic that one my favorite things to do for my kids, baking, or giving them treats, is also not so healthy. I want to shower them with love and goodies, yet I worry about how much sugar my kids are eating. I suppose this is reflective of my patterns as an adult; I want to “treat” myself to a chocolate croissant, fully knowing that this is not exactly a healthy habit. Aside from hyperactivity or health concerns, the deeper worry is setting them up for unhealthy patterns and behaviors (bad day? Get an ice cream cone!).

But I do firmly believe there is a middle-ground. As parents we are all in different places on a spectrum of the amount of sugar we feel is acceptable for our kids. I know many of us would like to reduce it: for our kids, ourselves or the whole family. But let’s face it-the cards are stacked against us. Sugar is the most insidious, ubiquitous food-like substance to sneak in our diets at every turn. Depending on where you are on that imaginary parenting spectrum, you may find that lots of sugar is being eaten outside of the home: birthday parties, donuts at soccer matches, trading food at school. Unless you are willing to closely police events and your child’s every move outside of the home, the best strategy is to control what happens inside the home.

In light of that, here are a few practical tips for reducing the sugar load at home.

• Have set dessert nights. If your kids love sugar, you may find nagging to be a problem. Having set dessert nights allows you to plead the 5th, “Oh, sorry honey, dessert night is Wednesday, not tonight. Help yourself to an apple”. You can choose how many nights a week you are comfortable with. We go for three, Mon-Wed-Fri. If you’re a baker, make one of your dessert nights a night when you (maybe including the kids) can bake. My Dad tells me that my grandmother baked every Sunday. Rituals like that are especially comforting for young children, I think, and of course the memories last for years.

• Have easy, go-to desserts, either for dessert nights or treats at home you feel OK about. Here are our standbys:

o Chocolate “fondue”. Couldn’t be simpler. Melt chopped dark chocolate (or chocolate chips) with a little cream (microwave is fine) to make a dipping sauce your kids will love. My quickest go-to dessert is some of this simple chocolate sauce with strawberries for dipping;  each child get their own little ramekin. For a special occasion, we bump it up a notch and have a variety of dippers like apples, berries, pretzels, waffle pieces, biscotti…you get the idea. Add in a roaring fire and you have a great winter night’s treat. If you like to have some guidelines for measurements, here’s a nice recipe from Eating Well.

o Whipped cream with berries. I don’t sweeten my whipped cream, as it’s naturally already quite sweet (see “train their taste buds” below). To me, nothing quite beats this “dessert”. If fat scares you, please keep in mind that kids need plenty of fat: our brains are 40% cholesterol and fatty acids coat and protect our neurons. It’s important to eat the right kinds of fats (more on this in a future post), and cream from pastured cows is a good one. Organic Valley cream is a good choice, and many farmer’s markets now have some great dairy options, like Kilgus. If you love a fancy gadget like I do, you may want to check out this super-fun whip creamer. I use mine to play barista at home, for the super-quick berries with whipped cream dessert, or any time I need whipped cream.

o Fruit based desserts. This could be a quick apple or pear crisp, a baked apple, a tropical fruit salad, or something as simple as apple slices simmered with cinnamon in a little water (astonishingly good and simple).

o Popsicles. You can make your own, in under 10 minutes, with this cool little gadget. The fun factor is high for this one-the kids love it, and there are tons of options for flavors, types etc. There are many other, simpler popsicle trays on the market as well. Or just keep some store-bought popsicles (all fruit-look at sugar content and label carefully) in the freezer.

• Train their taste buds. Depending on the age of your kids, you can either start with less as they grow, or you may need to wean them down. A few examples:

Start 'em young

o Start and stay with dark chocolate: for eating, for sauces, frostings etc. I never buy milk chocolate (exception: s’mores), so our kids are accustomed to dark chocolate and will happily eat 70% cacao dark chocolate sauce. For kids used to sweeter chocolate, slowly start introducing less sweet chocolate. You can move from milk to semisweet to bittersweet gradually. Dark chocolate not only has less sugar, but more beneficial nutrients. It’s the only “sweets” I keep around-a big glass jar filled with bars of the stuff.

o Skip flavored yogurt and sweeten your own at home. Flavored yogurts are a big hit in lunches but a huge source of hidden sugar. You can save on sugar, money, and those little throw-away tubs by buying big tubs of plain yogurt and sweetening at home with raw honey or maple syrup; as little as you can get away with. Other sweetening options are: some good jam, preserves, applesauce, or fruit puree. Whole milk yogurt is best for growing kiddos.

o Skip commercially made chocolate milk and mix it up at home, using the least amount of syrup to get a nice chocolatey taste. Ditto for hot chocolate.

o Try reducing amounts of sugar in your favorite recipes, or using more natural sugars like honey and maple syrup. This takes experimenting, but many desserts are overly sweet and still taste great, or even better, with less sugar. Pastry chefs know this well and great restaurant desserts are not overly sweet and always have a hint of salt for balance.

Finally, watch out for those crazy portions. If a Starbucks muffin is too big for us, it’s way too big for kids. We get so conditioned to the norm that it’s hard to always remember we are helping them develop habits for life. Don’t be afraid to cut muffins, cookies or brownies into appropriate sizes. It drives me crazy when you go to an ice cream store and there’s no kiddie size cone, or worse, the “single scoop” is actually two. Sabotage! Luckily, if you are a baker, there are lots of great muffin pans and baking supplies that have appropriate sizes for baking cupcakes, muffins, etc. Make sure you mini size it for your mini kids. If you start this early and practice it often, they won’t even notice any difference. Bottom line: cookies should not be the size of our heads.