Massaman curry

A mild long-cooked curry with whole spices and potatoes, cooked until the beef gives entirely.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, curry paste, which usually contains shrimp paste, fish sauce.

Ingredients

1.2 kg beef shin, in 4 cm cubes
800 ml coconut milk
5 tablespoons massaman curry paste
3 potatoes, in large chunks
2 onions, in wedges
80 g peanuts, roasted
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons palm sugar
3 tablespoons tamarind paste
5 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
3 bay leaves
400 ml water

Method

ONE DISH, NOT ONE PER PROTEIN. Beef here, and chicken or lamb is the same recipe with the simmer shortened -- a variation rather than another page.
TOAST THE WHOLE SPICES DRY FIRST. Cardamom, cinnamon and bay in a dry pan over a medium heat, 2 minutes, until they smell warm. This is the curry with whole spices in it, and untoasted they taste of the cupboard.
Crack the paste: 200 ml of the coconut milk in a wide pan, boiled hard until it splits into oil and solids, 5 to 6 minutes, then the paste in and fried in that oil for 4 minutes until it darkens.
Beef in, turned to coat, 5 minutes.
Remaining coconut milk, water, toasted spices, fish sauce, palm sugar and tamarind in.
Simmer covered, very gently, 2 hours. Beef shin needs the whole time -- at 90 minutes it is tender and still has a grain to it, and this is meant to fall apart under a spoon.
Potatoes and onions in for the last 30 minutes, uncovered from here so the sauce reduces around them.
Peanuts in for the last 10 minutes, so they soften slightly without going soggy.
TASTE AT THE END AND EXPECT IT TO NEED TAMARIND. This is the mildest, sweetest curry on the site and it tips into cloying easily; sourness is what holds it back, not salt and not chilli.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes