Mussaman Duck Curry

A mussaman curry is one of the most delicious dishes. It is thought to have arrived in Siam with the first Persian envoy to the court of Ayuthyia in the sixteenth century. Mr D has adapted this recipe for the Shuttle Chef from one published in Fresh Magazine and they have kindly given their permission for us to use it. This unusual version of Thai mussaman curry is highly seasoned with tamarind and will delight you and your guests.


INGREDIENTS:

• large duck breasts
• 2 star anise
• 2" piece of cinnamon stick
• 3 bay leaves
• 6 cardamom pods
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3tbs Mussaman paste
• 400ml coconut milk
• 200ml water & 1 chicken stock cube
• small jar 100gm tamarind paste
• 1tbs fish sauce
• 75g salted peanuts
• 350g potatoes cut into 2.5cm cubes
• small bunch of coriander leaves

Method:

1. Put a frying pan on a high heat and when hot add the two duck breasts skin side down. Cook for 5-6 minutes until the skin is golden brown.
2. Turn the breasts over and cook for a further minute.
3. Remove from the pan slice the duck breasts and put to one side for later.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the shuttle chef inner pot over a medium heat.
5. Add the star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves and cardamom and cook for 30 secs.
6. Add the chopped onion and cook for 4-6 minutes until golden.
7. Stir in the Mussaman paste and cook for 1 minute.
8. Add the sliced duck and make sure that it well coated with the mixture. Cook for 2 minutes.
9. Add the cocunut milk, tamarind and fish sauce.
10. Add the chopped potatoes and make sure that they are nicely covered with the sauce. Bring to the boil.
11. Add 3/4 of the peanuts (saving the rest for garnish).
12. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
13. Put the lid on the inner pot and place it into the insulated outer pot.
14. Put the lid down and leave it to cook for 2 hours.
15. Serve with Jasmine rice and garnish with the remaining peanuts and the coriander.

Cooking Rice in a thermal cooker.

Probably like you, many of the meals I cook, involve serving them with rice and if you own a thermal cooker there are two way to deal with this.
As my Shuttle Chef has only one inner pot (some thermal cooker have two) I can either put a trivet in the bottom (its legs in the food) and put something like my cake tin containing part boiled rice on the trivet or I can cook my rice about 30 minutes before I want to eat in a separate saucepan.
In the past I have tried many methods of cooking rice. These include Jamie Oliver's rice cooking method from his book "Ministry of Food" and Madhur Jaffrey's methods from her book "Illustrated Indian Cookery". All of these work but take far more time than my method and do not seem to be any better.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of rice per person. I always use Basmati rice except for when I am cooking Thai food. With Thai I prefer Jasmine rice.
• 1 cup of water for each 1/2 cup of rice.
• Salt to taste.

Method:

1. Add the water to a saucepan.
2. Add salt tasting the water until you can taste the salt. Vary the amount to your taste but remember if you can't taste the salt in the water your rice will tend to be bland.
3. Bring the water to the boil.
4. Pour the rice into the boiling water and bring it back to the boil.
5. Boil it gently (a rolling boil) for 5 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat and put a lid on the pan.
7. Leave for about 30 minutes and you then will have perfectly cooked rice.
8. Before serving fluff up with a fork.

Useful guide to cooking times

I though that today I would post this useful little chart from The Thermal Cooker site. It will give you a basic idea of cooking times for your own menues. Most slow cooker recipes can be used in the thermal cooker and by using either the times in a similar recipe or the times below you should end up with a perfectly cooked meal.

Food:	Simmer time after bringing to the boil:	Thermal cooking time:
Rice	5 mins	1 to 1.5 hours
Potatoes	5 mins	1 to 2 hours
Soup & Stock	10 mins	2 to 3 hours
Green Lentils	10 mins	3 to 4 hours
Pintos	10 mins	3 hours
Split Peas	10 mins	2 hours
Quinoa	5 mins	1.5 hours
Millet	5 mins	1 hours
Polenta	1 mins	1 hours
Winter Squash	5 mins	1 to 2 hours
Steamed bread	30 mins	3 hours
Chicken	6 mins	2 to 3 hours
Beef	13 mins	3 to 4 hours

Stocks - There are basic stocks in Mr D's Thermal Cook Book

Stocks are something that is ideally made in a thermal cooker. They are great to have in the freezer ready for use with soups, gravy or risotto.
The method of making them is the same. Once you have added the ingredients, brought them to the boil simmer for ten minutes then put in the thermal cooker and left for up to 8 hours. It is important to make sure the cooker inner pot is filled at least up to 3/4 to retain the heat for the longer cooking. Remember you can always freeze the stock (by putting 500ml portions into small freezer bags) so I always fill my Shuttle Chef to the top. If you are not freezing it keep it in the fridge until required.

If you are making a meat based stock to use for soups don't remove the layer of fat from the surface until you are ready to use it as this forms a seal to keep out the air.

VEGETARIAN ORIENTAL VEGETABLE STOCK:

To make this stock you need to keep your vegetable trimmings for a few days. Keep them in the fridge in a bag until you are ready to make the stock.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 fill your inner pot with water.


• 1 tbls of black peppercorns.


• 4 star anise.


• 6 cardamoms.


• 1 cinnamom stick.


• 1 piece of blade mace.


• 6 cloves.


• 1 tbls cumin seeds.


• 1 tbls coriander seeds.


• 2 bay leaves.


• 4 curry leaves.


• 1 stick of celery.


• 1 green chille (optional)


• 5cm of ginger chopped. No need to peel.


• 1 onion chopped.


• 3 cloves of garlic crushed.


• A selection of vegetable trimmings chopped roughly.

Bring to the boil. simmer for 10 minutes and then put into the outer insulated pot for 6 to 8 hours. Once ready strain and either freeze or keep in the fridge until ready for use.

Over the next few weeks I will be adding more stocks.

Useful Tip 1 - How to cook for two people.

I was looking at Thermal Cookware site this morning and found this question and answer which I though may be of use to many who use a thermal cooker to cook for only two people.

Question:
Is it possible to cook a small meal as sometimes I do not have enough ingredients to fill a whole pot or I may just want to have enough for one or two people?

Answer:
If you are using the one pot Shuttle Chef you can certainly cook a smaller meal however it would only retain it's core temperature above 60 degrees (food safety standards) for less than 6 to 8 hours, therefore you could prepare a smaller meal in the morning to eat at lunch time or at lunch time to eat at dinner (say 4 hours later). Or you can bring the inner pot back up to the boil 4 hours later so that it would have another 4 hours before dropping below food safety standards.

When I have been cooking a small amount I have often put this in my cake tin which I cover with baking parchment and then put this on a trivet in the inner pot filled with enough water to come 3/4 of the way up the side of the tin. This system seems to work well. This is the same method that is used to cook cakes.

Chef David make Flapjacks on his Cobb BBQ

Chef David uses his Cobb BBQ to make flapjacks. This is part of a series of recipes made by chef Davis for Coob Global.

NOTE: This Video was produced by Cobb for publicity purposes and should not be copied without their consent.

Master stock - From Mr D's Thermal Cook Book

Last night I didn't use the Shuttle Chef as we still had some of the Biriani left so I have decided to add my recipe for Master Stock.

Master stock refers to an aromatic, reusable stock used a lot in Cantonese cooking. Once the base stock has been prepared it is then used as a poaching or braising liquid for meat. Chicken is the most common meat cooked in master stock, although duck and pork are also often used.
I have read that in some restaurants in Beijing use master stock that is over 100 years old and it is a wonderful thought that maybe flavours that were created all those years ago are being handed down from generation to generation.

My stock is fairly new and I don't know if in a hundred years someone will still be cooking chicken in it but I do know it gives food a divine texture and flavour.

KEEPING THE STOCK: After use, if the master stock is not be immediately reused it should be boiled, skimmed, strained and cooled quickly to minimise the potential for bacterial growth. The stock should then be refrigerated or frozen until required. Refrigerated stocks may be kept for up to three days, while frozen stocks may be kept for up to a month. If the stock is to be kept longer it must be boiled before being reused.


THE INGREDIENTS:

2 L Water.

4 Cloves Garlic Sliced.

4cm piece of Ginger sliced.

6 spring onions chopped in half.

1 piece of cassia bark (you can substitute cinnamon stick for this).

3 star anise.

3 pieces of dried orange peel. You can buy this at an Asian supermarket or peel an orange (without the white pitch as this is bitter) and dry it slowly in the oven on a very low heat.

250 ml light Soy sauce.

250 ml Shoaxing wine (Chinese cooking wine).

75 g Chinese rock sugar (granulated sugar can be used ).

THE METHOD:

Fill a saucepan with the water. Add the sliced garlic, ginger and shallots, followed by the aromatics.

Add the light soy, shaoxing wine and Chinese rock sugar.

Bring to the boil and taste the stock for balance of flavours. If it requires more salt add a little more soy sauce.

Allow the stock to cool, if not using straight away, strain it through a fine sieve and refrigerate until needed.

Master stock, once cooled, strained and refrigerated can be used again and again.

Replenish the stock with fresh garlic, ginger, shallots and aromatics each time you use it and the flavour will continue to intensify in strength and flavour.