Masaman curry

Hello all,

I've always loved the Masaman curry served in Thai restaurants. I've tried making it at home from various packets available in grocery stores and always found something lacking - it never tastes quite right. Does anyone know the brand of paste (or whatever it is) used by Thai restaurants (it's always tasted the same no matter where I've had it, so I assume they're buying it from the same place). I'm also assuming these restaurants aren't in the back grinding the spices themselves since some of the roots 'n' stuff are hard to come by.

I've tried asking at the restaurants themselves but they always just look at me blankly like I'm speaking a foreign language...



TIA.

[Kimmie]

Hello Moodtobestewed,

Welcome to Cheftalk.

You will find your recipe in Fine Cooking JUNE/JULY 2000 - #39. I will try to get to my magazine (we are in the process of moving, but I'm very organized).

You can also order a back issue of the magazine through their website. Just click here

[Risa]

I think lots of the Thai restaurants that don't make their own curry pastes (like the ones here in Springfield) use Maesri which comes in cans or Mae Ploy that I have at home that comes in a cardboard container that looks a bit like the pint-size ice cream containers. A Thai foodie friend of mine swears by the Mae Ploy and says that it produces curries that taste similar to the freshly ground curry pastes you buy in Thailand. The dishes she cooked here regularly for her starving student friends before she moved back to Thailand tasted much much better than anything at the restaurants. Most of us aren't starving students anymore but we still miss her very much and her excellent meals.

[Kimmie]

Hi again,

Actually, it's called "Masmun" Beef Curry. Lamb, chicken or duck would be good too. Stay away from seafood: it's not a good a match for this hearty curry.

Masmun Beef Curry
(Serves six)

FOR THE COCONUT MILK AND CREAM:
2 coconuts, baked at 375º F for 20 minutes, cooled (see note below)
5 cups warm water

FOR THE CHILE PASTE:
2 dried New Mexico or California chiles, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes with a pinch of sea salt
15 dried de arbol or Japanese chiles, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes with a pinch of sea salt
1 Tbs. white peppercorns, toasted
1 Tbs. coriander seeds, toasted
½ tsp. cumin seeds, toasted
½ tsp. caraway seeds, toasted
½ tsp. cardamom pods, toasted
6 whole cloves, toasted
3 heads garlic (top third sliced off), drizzled with 1 Tbs. olive oil, wrapped in foil, roasted at 350º F for 60 minutes, and peeled
6 stalks lemongrass (green parts and hard outer stalks removed), drizzled with 1 Tbs. olive oil, and roasted at 350º F for 25 minutes
1-inch chunk galangal or ginger,peeled, drizzled with 1 Tbs. olive oil, wrapped in foil, and roasted at 350º F for 20 minutes
2 shallots, drizzled with 1 Tbs. olive oil, wrapped in foil, roasted at 350º F for 35 to 40 minutes, and peeled
1 tsp. sea salt
10 to 12 cilantro stems (with roots, if possible), minced
½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground mace
Peeled zest of 1 kaffir lime or regular lime, minced
2 tsp. fermented shrimp paste or 3 tsp. red miso

FOR THE BEEF CURRY:
3 cups fresh unsweetened coconut milk
2 lb. good-quality top sirloin, sliced against the grain into thin 2-inch strips, thoroughly patted dry
2 cups fresh unsweetened coconut cream
1 cup chile paste (from the recipe above)
2 Tbs. fish sauce
2 Tbs. palm sugar or light brown sugar
2 Tbs. thick tamarind pulp (soak a 1-inch block of tamarind in ½ cup hot water for 20 minutes; strain; discard water)
3 bay leaves
¼ tsp. ground mace
4 whole cloves, toasted
8 shallots, drizzled with olive oil, roasted at 350º F for 30 to 40 minutes, peeled, and left whole
2 cups seedless green grapes
5 kumquats or 1 peeled, seeded tangerine, either sliced paper-thin

or...use canned coconut milk—Fresh coconut milk is worlds better than canned, but in a pinch, use canned unsweetened coconut milk (not coconut cream) and dilute to the right consistency: For 3 cups of coconut milk, dilute a 13½ ounce can with water until you have 3 cups (24 ounces total). For 2 cups of coconut cream, dilute one 13½ ounce can with water until you have 2 cups (16 ounces total).

PREPARATION

Mince and grind the prepared chile paste ingredients
For moderate spice heat, remove the ribs and seeds from most of the soaked de arbol chiles. Mince all the soaked chiles.

Grind each of the toasted spices separatly and reserve them for pounding.

Mince the roasted garlic, lemongrass, ginger or galangal, and shallots. Transfer to separate bowls and reserve for pounding the paste.

Get your ingredients lined up and pound the chile paste
Have all the chile paste ingredients from the list prepped and on hand. Put the sea salt and garlic in the mortar; pound until a paste forms. Add the minced cilantro stems and lemongrass; pound until incorporated into the paste.

Pound up and down with an even rhythm, rotating the mortar occasionally to ensure even pounding. Add the minced dried chiles. Use a spoon to scrape the paste down into the center of the mortar.

Continue adding each remaining ingredient one at a time, pounding to a paste before adding the next: peppercorns, coriander, cumin, caraway, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace, lime zest, galangal or ginger, shallots, and finally, shrimp paste or miso.

Cook and serve the curry
In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring the coconut milk to a boil. Boil until some cream begins to separate and rises to the top, about 2 minutes, and then skim the cream off into a 12-inch skillet.

Add the beef to the pan of boiling coconut milk; return to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the beef if half cooked, about 10 minutes. Skim off and discard the scum. Leave the pan at a lazy simmer.

Meanwhile, add the previously prepared coconut cream and 1 cup of the chile paste to the skillet with the skimmed-off coconut cream. Bring to a boil over high heat; stir to combine. Lower the heat to medium.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the been from the saucepan to the skillet (keep the saucepan simmering). Stir well to coat the beef. Raise the heat to high and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring often.

Return the beef and the chile paste mixture to the simmering saucepan of coconut milk. Raise the saucepan heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Add the fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind pulp, bay leaves, mace, cloves, and roasted shallots. Lower the heat to medium. Cook until the beef is tender, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Stir in the grapes and kumquat or tangerine slices; cook until the grapes are slightly soft, 1 to 2 minutes.

Cook and stir the mixture until bubbles cover the surface (I think it looks like Mars craters) and a reddish oil forms thin rivulets, 15 to 20 minutes.

Arrange the accompaniements in small dishes near the serving bowl of curry and serve with a bowl of steaming basmati or jasmine rice.

Accompaniments are the crowning touch, providing the balance of contrasts that's the essence of Thai cooking. With Masmun curry, serve fresh chiles in fish sauce for additional spice and salty pungency, and a light, refreshing cucumber relish. In addition,
- pickled garlic ginger, available in Asian markets, add coolness and pugency,
- a small salad of bitter greens adds crispness. Thai cooks use pennywort, but arugula or escarole (or a mix) is a fine substitute.
- finally, enjoy each spoonful of curry and rice mixed with each of the accompaniments.

CONDIMENTS
Chiles in fish sauce
10 to 12 fresh bird chiles or 7 to 8 sererano chiles, minced
½ cup fish sauce

Stir together the chiles and fish sauce. Seal in a glass jar for up to a week.

Cucumber Relish
1 cucumber, peeled, halved, seeded, and thinly sliced, on the diagonal
1 shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 fresh serrano chile (preferably red), seeded and finely chopped
Pinch sea salt
1 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. cider vinegar
2 sprigs cilantro, coarsely chopped
6 mint leaves, coarsely chopped

In a small bowl, mix the cucumber, shallot, chile, salt, sugar, and vinegar. Let sit for at least 10 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

Just before serving, stir in the cilantro and the mint.

TIMETABLE
Making this curry will be more relaxed if you work ahead and seal everything in plastic or glass.

Up to one month ahead
- Roast the coconuts; make and freeze the coconut milk and cream
- Pound the chile paste

Up to 1 week before pounding Soak and mince the chiles
Up to 3 days before pounding Roast the garlic, lemongrass, ginger or galangal, and shallots
Up to 2 days before pounding Toast and grind the peppercorns, coriander seed, cumin seed, caraway seed, cardamon, and cloves

UP TO 2 DAYS AHEAD
- Roast the whole shallots for the curry
- Assemble Chiles in fish sauce

A FEW HOURS AHEAD
Assemble Cucumber relish


From Fine Cooking Mag, July 2000, No. 39 --
Excerpt from Su-Mei Yu's cookbook, Cracking the Coconut (William Morrow, publisher)

(tried and true, this is a marvellous recipe).

[-d-]

moodtobestewed,

Massaman is my favorite kaeng. When I was growing, there would be months where I would eat massaman every day for dinner. Probably not nutritionally sound, but boy was it satisfying.

Here are three starting areas where massaman can go wrong:

1) Paste
With regards to the prepared pastes, I use Mae Ploy massaman paste as well. Kasma Loha-unchit, the author of Dancing Shrimp and It Rain Fishes, uses 1/2 Mae Ploy and 1/2 Mae Anon paste for her recipe when she teaches Thai cooking. Mae Ploy has a hot and herbal taste, while Mae Anon has a more roasted flavor. Combining the two makes a great massaman paste.

2) Coconut milk
Also, what type of coconut milk are you using? You must use a good quality product, either Mae Ploy or Chaokoh.

3) Releasing the flavor of the paste
In order to get the flavor out of the paste, you need to first fry it. Take the 2/3 cup of coconut cream (the solidified portion of the coconut milk when you open the can), and heat on medium high heat. When the cream starts to bubble and gets a oily sheen to it, the oil has started to separate from the cream. This takes about 3-4 minutes. At this point, put in the paste and fry to fragrant.

[pollyg]

I find that the commercial pastes are heavy on the chili and lacking in the aromatics so i make a simple paste of garlic, ginger ( or galangal), lemongrass, lime leaves and anything else that is appropriate to each particular curry and I add it to the Mae Ploy paste.
Don't forget to taste and season your curry at the end. Fish sauce and palm sugar are good for accentuating or balancing out the flavours of a Thai curry.
Happy Eating

[jwv76]

I also think that commercial pastes are way, way too salty, even the mae ploy brand, as is the case with any store bought sauce that is packaged to be on the shelf for a year or more if necessary. The ingredients necessary to make your own aren't really all that hard to come by at all these days, just about every medium sized city has enough of an asian population to support a few asian groceries where you can buy lemongrass, ginger,shrimp paste, coconuts or canned coconut milk, fish sauce, palm sugar, kaphir lime leaves, etc. Also try looking around for a good spice merchant, someone who can sell you whole spices, you can toast them yourself in a small pan over medium heat until fully fragrant, then grind them to a fine powder in your coffee mill. The pre-ground spices sold in supermarkets leave much lacking in pungency, aroma, and flavor.

[Kimmie]

I agree, if you won't make your own, Chaokoh is probably the best around!

I hope it's the recipe you wanted, moodtobestewed...