Massaman curry

Ingredients

• Beef — in large pieces900 g
• Massaman curry paste5 tbsp
• Coconut milk800 ml
• Potatoes500 g
• Onions2
• Roasted peanuts100 g
• Tamarind paste3 tbsp
• Palm sugar3 tbsp
• Fish sauce3 tbsp
• Cinnamon stick1
• Cardamom pods4
• Bay leaves2
• Jasmine rice — to serve400 g

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Heat the thick part of the coconut milk without stirring until the oil separates.

   10 min

2. 2

   Fry the massaman paste in that oil for four minutes, until it darkens and smells right.

   6 min

3. 3

   Add the beef and turn it in the paste, then add the cinnamon, cardamom and bay.

   8 min

4. 4

   Add the rest of the coconut milk and stew gently for an hour, until the meat is tender.

   65 min

5. 5

   Add the potato and onion in large pieces and cook twenty minutes more.

   22 min

6. 6

   Stir in the tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce and taste: it should read sweet, sour and salty at once.

   8 min

7. 7

   Add the peanuts, warm them five minutes and serve with jasmine rice.

   8 min

About the dish

The spices are not Thai but brought by Persian and Indian traders: cinnamon, cardamom, clove, star anise. That makes massaman gentler and more aromatic than any other Thai curry.

Tamarind gives the sourness and palm sugar the sweetness, and the balance between them is adjusted by tasting at the end. It depends on the batch of tamarind, and there is no universal ratio.

The beef stews for an hour or more. There is no quick massaman: it is the one Thai curry where the meat is meant to fall into threads.

Worth knowing

• — Adjust the balance at the end and by tasting. Tamarind varies in acidity, and following grams blindly makes no sense here.
• — The potato goes in late. An hour in the pot turns it to purée and the sauce goes floury.
• — Massaman should be mild. If the paste is fiery, use less of it and add the whole spices separately.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

780 kcal

Protein

44 g

Fat

44 g

Carbs

56 g

More from Thailand

• Tom yum goong — A hot and sour prawn soup where the balance is set at the end: fish sauce, lime and sugar go in to taste rather than by the recipe.
• Pad thai — Rice noodles fried with tamarind, fish sauce and palm sugar. The whole thing takes four minutes.
• Pad krapow — Minced pork fried with chilli, garlic and holy basil. Five minutes from start to plate.