Peruvian roast duck with aji and coconut curry

Leslie brought home duck legs the other day and I decided to cook roast duck tonight, one of my household's favorites. But I didn't want to do our normal treatment and decided that since I was cooking, we would try something different tonight.

I am so gaga over that Peruvian aji amarillo paste that I made an aji coconut curry for the duck, adding garlic chili paste, ginger, lime and a whole bunch of garlic. 

Pretty much out of my head, mind you.

Leslie came home and said it was way too spicy for her rather delicate sensibilities so we added more coconut cream and turbinado sugar to balance it out and calm things down. 

What a delicious sauce! It is a meld of southeast asian and South American flavors and I think they lend themselves to each other beautifully. Next time I might even add some lemon grass.

I dredged the duck legs and seared them in the dutch oven and then transferred the duck to the oven for 90 minutes at 325 degrees, flipping it every so often.

We aimed for 165 cooking temp on the duck and it was close enough at 170 when we pulled it.

We poured the sauce over the duck and served it with truffle ravioli and cilantro.

Absolutely delicious!