Thai duck salad with roast peanuts, shaved cabbage, tamarind and mandarin

Fiona Anderson

Used in both Asian and European cuisines, duck is easily able to handle robust flavours from earthy root vegetables and bitter greens, to spices and aromatics. Shaved cabbage adds a refreshing crunch to this Thai duck salad.

Thai duck salad

1	Roast duck, whole*
4 cups	Cabbages, finely shaved
4	Spring onions, finely sliced
1	Red onion, finely sliced
2 cups	Fresh coriander, picked and washed
1 ½ cups	Fresh mint, picked and washed
12	Mandarins, peeled and sliced in half (Main)
¼ cup	Roasted peanuts, roughly crushed
¼ cup	Shallots, deep-fried
1 cup	Salad dressing, use the tamarind dressing below

Tamarind dressing

½ tsp	Shrimp paste
1 knob	Fresh ginger, 2cm, peeled and finely sliced
¼ tsp	Salt
2 Tbsp	Desiccated coconut, toasted
1 Tbsp	Peanuts, blanched and roasted
2	Red chillies, small
1 cup	Palm sugar, crushed
½ cup	Water
3 Tbsp	Fish sauce
3 Tbsp	Tamarind

Directions

Thai duck salad

1. Heat oven to 200C. Remove meat from duck discarding bones and place on to a baking paper-lined oven tray. Place duck into the oven for 4 to 5 minutes to warm up before removing from oven and roughly chopping.
2. Place warmed duck into a large bowl along with the cabbage, spring onion, herbs, mandarin and half the roast peanuts and deep fried shallots. Add half the tamarind dressing and toss together. Divide between 4 plates and finish each salad with the remaining dressing, peanuts and shallots. Serve immediately.

Tamarind dressing

1. Heat oven to 200C. Wrap shrimp paste in a small piece of aluminium foil and place on a small oven tray with the ginger and roast for 5 to 10 minutes or until shrimp paste becomes fragrant. (Wrapping shrimp paste in foil will prevent it from burning as it roasts.)
2. Remove from oven and place in a mortar with salt, coconut, peanuts and chillies and grind to a smooth paste.
3. Place palm sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved and liquid starts to thicken. Add fish sauce and paste and simmer over a medium heat until aromas from the paste are released. Add tamarind and simmer for a further minute before removing from heat.
4. Allow to cool and adjust seasoning with a little more fish sauce if desired. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a month.

*If time is short buy a whole duck ready roasted from the Chinese grocer or restaurant nearby. If roasting your own duck, cook at 200C until the meat starts to fall off the bone.