Attention all home cooks! Are you ready to put your masala and curry blends to the ultimate test? If your answer is yes, then why not sign up for Sally’s second Curry Duck Competition? The cook off, hosted by one of the best cooks on the island, Sally Hamid of Kenny's Korner Restaurant and Bar, will take place on Sunday, June 30, starting at 1:00pm at Kenny's Korner.
The competition is open to anyone, who is not afraid to show off their skills to a live audience and is not intimidated to cook in the open air and be outside of their own kitchen. The most important criterion is that competitors want to share their version of the popular West Indian curry dish.
Participants must bring their own duck meat, masala, cooking utensils and choice of stove (suitable for outdoor cooking). Masala and curry must be blended on the spot. No pre-cooking of duck curry dish is allowed in the competition. All preparations for the curry must do carried out at Kenny’s Korner.
Duck curry must be presented with a side dish. This side dish of the cook’s choice can be prepared in advance. The cut off time for the duck curry to be off the fire and plated for judges is 4:30pm.
A bench of judges covering the food world – both as foodies and cooks – will select the best duck curry based on taste, smell, pairing with side dish and plating among other criteria.
Does your duck curry have the right masala to take home the first prize of US $1,000? Monetary prizes are also up for grabs for second best duck curry and the third best duck curry! What are you waiting for?
Registration opened yesterday and will continue until a few days before the competition. Sign up today by in-boxing Sally Hamid on Facebook.com or visit Kenny's Korner Restaurant and Bar on A Th. Illidge Road (opposite the former Cat’s Nightclub). Registration fee is $50.
Organiser Sally says this competition is not only for home cooks, who are amateurs or who already consider themselves professionals in their home kitchen, but is also a spectator sport of sorts. The public is invited to watch the cooks prepare their dishes for the judges. After the judging, competitors are allowed to give the public a sample of their dishes if they so desire.
Duck Curry competitions have grown in popularity over the years in the Caribbean, especially in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, and in the United States and Canada. The duck curry is a favourite dish of many people across cultures and is served with white rice, roti (a type of West Indian flat bread) or dhal puri (a ground-lentil filled flat bread).
Duck curry or curry duck (which name is correct has been an age old battle among people of Guyanese and Trinidadian background) can be cooked in two ways: “bunjal” – a dry, yet flavourful dish often served with dhal (a yellow lentil soup), white rice or roti, or wet (meaning a dish was a sauce). Duck curry is still in some ways considered an exotic meal. The meat used often from the “drake” or male of the duck species, because it has less fat.
Curry refers to a variety of dishes originating in the Indian subcontinent that use a complex combination of spices or herbs, usually including ground turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger and fresh or dried chilies. Curry is generally prepared in a sauce. Curry dishes were made popular in the Caribbean by Indians who emigrated especially to the South American countries of Guyana and Suriname and some islands in the Caribbean archipelago in the 1800s.
