Massaman Curry

I love this recipe. It is fairly easy, and quite tasty.

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups Coconut Milk (or 1 can with some water to water it down)
• 1.5 Lbs Chicken/Stewing Beef. Cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 cup Coconut Cream (or 1 can cream or milk)
• 3 Tbs. Massaman Curry Paste
• 2 Tbs. Fish Sauce/Salt
• 1 Tbs. Brown Sugar/Sugar
• 4 Tbs. Tamarind Juice (Optional)
• 6 Pods of Cardamom
• 1 Stick Cinnamon - Or Cinnamon powder to taste
• 1 to 1.5 lbs Potatoes, cut into cubes
• 1 Onion, cut into wedges
• 0.5 cup roasted peanuts (Optional)
• 1 Tbs. Lime Juice (Or 1 or 2 fresh limes)
• Rice (preferably jasmine)

Notes on Ingredients

This is the recipe given to me, but I make the following adjustments every time I prepare it.

I always buy 2 cans of coconut milk instead to trying to differentiate between cream and milk. for the first one in the list, I use 1 can and pour in 1 more can of water. I do this because the chicken needs to be fairly well covered as it warms up in the pot (see Directions).

In any Thai recipe that I do, if it calls for Fish Sauce I always use salt instead. The Fish Sauce is really stinky, and brings mostly salt to the food, so I find just using salt instead is a great substitute.

The Massaman Curry paste is what gives this recipe its kick. You will need to find it in your local Asian food store. I use this particular brand (http://www.theasiancookshop.co.uk/mae-ploy-massaman-curry-paste-masmanmusmanmatsamanmasaman-699-p.asp), but you can use whatever version you find. For people with sensitive tongues, I use one heaping spoonful of paste. If all people attending can handle the kick, I will use two heaping spoonfuls of paste. I might do a little more, but then the paste starts to overwhelm the dish. However, you can do this however you like.

Lime Juice is important. Tamarind Juice is not. I have only put in peanuts once or twice and I have made this dish dozens of times. I can never seem to get the peanuts to have the texture I like.

I prefer a sweet onion (Walla Walla/Maui/red) to a yellow onion.

I prefer cardamom pods but you can use ground cardamom. The pods are a little hard to find. Check out your local Asian food store. If you use the pods, while waiting for step 2, break open the 6 pods and pull out the seeds. I find that putting them in a bowl and pressing down on the seeds with a spoon helps them separate into individual seeds.

I do not cut the limes like restaurants do for your drinks. The wedge cut makes it difficult to get the juice out. Instead, I cut all the way through the lime, just to the side of the lime's core, cutting the lime into roughly three equal-width pieces (although only two have the same shape). With the middle piece I repeat cutting into thirds, and throw out the core. Then, each of the 4 lime pieces are easy to squeeze and get the juice out.

Directions

1. Bring Coconut Milk to a boil in a large sauce pan.
2. Add beef/chicken and simmer until tender. About 40-60 minutes. Use this time to peel and chop potatoes and chop the onion. They will keep you busy.
3. Bring coconut cream to a boil in a small saucepan.
4. Cook for about 5-8 minutes, stirring constantly, until it separates. (I can never tell when this happens, I just cook it until it is boiling and move to the next step).
5. Add the Massaman curry paste to the coconut cream and cook until it's fragrant.
6. Add the curry paste/cream mixture to the pan containing the cooked beef.
7. Add the fish sauce, sugar, tamarind juice, cardamom seeds, and cinnamon stick.
8. Add the potatoes and onion wedges.
9. Stir these all together.
10. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. About 10-15 minutes.
11. Adjust taste as necessary using fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice until you have a pleasing balance.
12. Serve over rice (preferably Jasmine rice).