Masaman Curry
 

Time to rejuvinate the food category.

I mentioned before that I am a big curry fan, particularly Thai and Indian varieties. I have been on a quest to figure out Thai curries since they seem simpler to make. It has been a fun journey. I still consider myself very much a novice, but I have learned a few things.

Thai curry is really quite simple and doesn't take long to cook. For most curries, you select a type of curry (red, yellow, green, or masaman), mix it with coconut milk, throw in a few veggies and some meat (and a couple other things) and let it simmer until the veggies are tender. One of the challenges is getting the right type and amount of curry paste. When you go to a restuarant, you can order hot, medium, or mild. This means that they withold the pepper part of the curry until they put together your dish. When you buy curry paste, the pepper is already in and the only thing you can do to adjust the spiciness is cut back on the amount of paste. This consequently cuts back the boldness of the overall flavor. The only alternative is to make your own paste and get the temp. exactly how you want it. I have not done that yet, but there are plenty of websites with recipes. I like to use the Mae Ploy brand of curry. It is pretty cheap and has a good flavor. The Thai Kitchen brand is quite common in the supermarkets, but it is more expensive and it is quite hot so you have to be very careful with the quantities (i.e., use very little) and you end up with less flavor. Keep in mind that I am cooking for a family and while my kids have a decent tolerance for spice, they do have a limit. I made some red curry a while back and even I (a tabasco sauce fan) couldn't eat it.

Anyway, our favorite recipe so far is masaman curry. This is a recipe I made up and tweaked after looking at lots of masaman recipes. The whole family loves it and it is very simple.

Masaman Curry

Ingredients:

• 2 cans coconut milk
• Masaman curry paste. I used 2T of Mae Ploy brand – this is half of what the brand says to use. Use more if you can stand a little more spice.
• ½ large sweet potato
• Handful of baby carrots
• 1 red potato
• 2 T sugar
• Cashews (optional)
• 2T Thai fish sauce. You can get this at most supermarkets in the Asian section.
• 1 lb. Beef stew meat.

Slow cook the stew meat in a small crock pot. Empty coconut milk into saucepan on medium heat. Add curry, fish sauce and sugar. Peel and chop sweet potato and potato. Chop carrots. Add meat and veggies to saucepan. After it boils, reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender. Add a handful of cashews prior to serving. Serve with rice. Serves 5-6 people.

A man after my own heart. I became hooked on Thai curries while in Bangkok of all places. My favorite is red curry in the states and yellow curry in Thailand (you just can't get or make good yellow curry here in the states). My least favorite of all the currys is green. Of course, green curry is like sex and pizza (even when it's bad it's still better than none at all).

You called it right on with the Mae Ploy vs. Thai Kitchen comparison. Mae Ploy is definitely better.

In what type of stores can one normally find the Mae Ploy curry. I am intrigued and ready to try it.

Funk, have you been to Uwajimaya in Beaverton? It's a huge Japanese supermarket, but they have other Asian foods there. Can't say for sure if they have that particular brand of curry paste.

JL, thanks for the recipe, I'm going to be on the lookout for that brand. I use Thai kitchen, and I guess it's ok. I personally like green curry, and have one that uses basil and spinach that's really good.

Any Asian grocery store or Asian market.

I've trained Mrs. Meanie up to be a pretty good Thai cook (she was already a good cook to start with - I wasn't big and fat before I got married although I was still mean). She would make a dish based on a recipe and I would say "needs more lemon grass" or "needs more kaffir lime" or different things like that until she got it to taste exactly like I remember from my days in Bangkok. She makes a mean Tom Yum Gung, Nam Tok (spicy thai beef), Larb Mu (spicy thai pork salad), all kinds of curries, etc.

We like to get our stuff at the asian stores because the prices are usually better and they have things like the kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, etc. that you can't find in a grocery store. Some day I'll host a BigFatMeanie get together and have Mrs. Meanie cook us up some Thai vittles.

I bought several tubs at this website:

http://www.templeofthai.com

They were $2.99 each plus shipping. A week later I was an Asian market in Orem and they had the same stuff at the same price (but no shipping, obviously).

Aha. We have a REAL expert in our midst. Feel free to share some of your favorite Thai recipes. I would love to try more dishes.

By the way, if your wife can cook those dishes and do it well, then perhaps you should be doing the dishes every time. ;)

Nah - I just rub her feet for her. That makes up for everything else I'm supposed to do yet don't do.

I tried this recipe tonight. It was quite good. I give it four out of five Rolaids. I like the Mae Ploy brand, it had good flavor but it was sufficiently mild so my wife and daughter could eat it.