Topic: Bombay Duck

[tempest63]

In the formative curry eating days of my youth it was always my preferred starter in a British Indian Restaurant, being dry, salty and fishy…it appealed. Like marmite you either loved it or hated it.

Then the EU banned its importation following a food poisoning scare and the producers back in India couldn’t meet the strict EU processing rules. Now it is back in force and I see it in most of the Indian grocers that I frequent.

I have recently been considering adding some to flavour ghee or oil at the beginning of the cooking process, similar to the way some dissolve anchovies in oil at the start of a ragu, or similar; a process I often use to add that extra Umami.

I have trawled the web and can find no previous reference to using BD in this way and wondered whether anyone else has come across the process?

I Know BD can be made into a pickle
https://www.hildastouchofspice.com/2012/07/dried-bombay-duck-chilli-fry-sukha-bombil.html
where it is partially rehydrated and then fried, but I was specifically thinking of it as a tempering, possibly ground up to a fine powder.

[curryhell]

In the formative curry eating days of my youth it was always my preferred starter in a British Indian Restaurant, being dry, salty and fishy…it appealed. Like marmite you either loved it or hated it.

Agree 100% with you on this.  That lovely salty crunchy fish tasting delicacy always accompanied my poppadums as a starter. I always insisted on it it being fried, as some restaurants had a habit of putting it in the tandoor  Sadly it's not of the same quality, texture and flavour of "back in the day".  I certainly  have read about crumbling cooked Bombay duck to dishes to add flavour.