Spicy Duck and Coconut Rice in 3 stages

Spiced Duck and Coconut Rice is something that I put together for a friend of mine “F”, who works in publishing. She loved the spicy creamy combination against the meat, although, to be honest I was walking around for about ten minutes with chilli-burn tongue looking like one of the characters from the Banana Splits (do you remember them? Anybody?) Admittedly, she didn't love it enough to get me that dream book contract. Also admittedly, the wine that went with it was enough to anaesthetise us both slowly but surely so that the next morning Alka Seltzer was the breakfast of choice. 

However, it is a comforting dish as the rich creaminess of the rice is such that the spicy sauce cuts through the coconut but doesn’t take away that woolly warm blanket just eaten feeling that you get from a favourite (or relatively new but enjoyable) dish.
 
This can either be bowl-in-front-of-the-television type meal with cuddly toy like slippers, or big-plate-formal-I-need-to-seduce/charm/get a job-with-swirly-sauce-fandango type meal.
 
Oven on 200C (400F, gas 4).

Stage 1:
Prepare the rice. Rinse it, put into a pan with  a good pinch of salt, the tin of coconut, equal amount of stock (chicken or vegetable, or even duck if you have it!) some lime leaves, pepper corns and slowly simmer until done. Drain and set aside in a warm place.
 
Stage 2:
Put a frying pan on the hob and heat. Meanwhile, slash the skin of the duck breast fillet in an artful crisscross (rather than in the way Michael Caine does to Angie Dickinson in that horrid film that left me terrified of car park lifts and also, strangely transvestites for some time, but I digress). Season and place face down on the frying pan letting it sizzle. When it is browned and crispy, turn each breast over and brown, then remove to a baking tray and slam in the oven for 8 minutes. Breathe! The rest is easy.

Stage 3:
Put equal amounts of wine and stock 250ml should do it, 4 Star Anise and 1 cinnamon stick, 1/4-1/2 tspn of chilli flakes and finally 1 tbspn of honey into a pan. Now, boil like your life depends on it, reducing it to a cream like consistency. If you have gas this should reduce quickly, sadly if you are like me and have an electric hob (or God forbid, the hot plate of an Aga/Rayburn) then this may take a little longer but your meat has to rest after cooking so if the pan is ready to go on then just start it earlier and reheat it loosening up the sauce with the juices from the duck (I didn’t say this was going to be healthy did I?!) or use the frying pan the duck was in, that way the surface area is wider and the liquid will evaporate more quickly (that’s science! Or so they tell me).

The meat should be cooked as the sauce is reducing so let it stand in a warm place for a few minutes, bring out the bowls or plates (I hope you warmed them. If not then quickly run them under the hot tap and dry and shame on you for your bad habits!) Ensure the bits are out of the rice.
 

Now with a large or extra large ice cream scoop if you are using a bowl because a good film is on, place an orb (can I call it that?) of the rice at the bottom, slice the breast into odd numbers and arrange around the rice then drizzle some of the sauce over it.

 

If you are entertaining or showing off, then a timbale lightly oiled then tightly packed with the rice works to get a nice moulded shape. Again, slice the duck and arrange around or nearby to the rice then with a desert spoon make swirly concentric circles of the sauce or zigzags, or even your initials (a squeezy bottle filled with the sauce works well, but watching your fingers with the heat. If you have a bottle to do this, you can make the sauce before the rice and duck and hold it in the bottle in a pan of hot water to keep it warm but not cooking). Chopped parsley for garnish? You can if you like.

Plate. Eat. Love... There could be a book in that!