Thai Massaman Curry Recipe

Christina Marsigliese

It's very hard to give you exact proportions for this recipe because I always do it by eye. It's one of those things that completely loses its pleasure if you measure. The one tip I can give you is, there is never too much of most things in curry paste!

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Servings 6 people

Ingredients

For the spice mixture:

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
6 white cardamom pods
1 star anise
one 1-inch piece cinnamon bark

For the paste:

4-6 dried red chilis chopped
6 cloves of garlic
peel from one Kaffir lime green part only, or 6 Kaffir lime leaves very finely sliced
1 stalk lemongrass thinly sliced
4 cilantro roots chopped
a 2-inch knob of galangal or ginger if using ginger you can use more
a 1-inch piece fresh turmeric root or ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
2-3 shallots depending on size
1 teaspoon shrimp paste

To prepare the curry:

2 cups pure coconut milk or coconut cream for the ultimate dish!
⅓ cup of curry paste or all of the batch - it will make the best curry!
1 lb sliced pork tenderloin sliced beef or chicken
2 large potatoes par-boiled and cut into chunks
any vegetable you like - I prefer pumpkin carrots, zucchini, broccoli, eggplant or red bell pepper (just don't use anything too potent like green bell peppers which would change the flavour of the curry)
2 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
salt to taste

Instructions

First roast the spices. Place them in a dry frying pan over medium heat and shake the pan frequently (so they don't burn) until they smell fragrant and start to dark a tinge.
Place toasted spices in the mortar and pound them with the pestle to a find powder. Transfer the ground spices to a separate bowl and start pounding the chilis. Add garlic, kafir lime peel or leaf, lemongrass and coriander root with about ½ teaspoon of coarse salt and pound away. Salt helps to make a smoother paste and break down the skins.
Add the remaining ingredients (galangal/ginger, turmeric, shallots) and keep pounding. Begin adding the dry spices, including paprika if you are using the hot paper chilis that don't give much flavour or colour. Finally mash in the shrimp paste. Keep pounding until the paste is buttery and smooth - it will take a good 15 minutes.
To make the curry, heat about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (or other vegetable oil) in a wok and fry up the paste to bring out the aroma and then stir in coconut milk. The traditional way that I like to use is to heat about 3 tablespoons of coconut milk in the wok over very high heat until it boils and begins to break or separate. Once the oil separates out, you can start frying your paste. You need really high quality coconut milk to do this and I only and always use Aroy-D. It is the one and only brand you should use too - the best of the best I promise.
Once the paste is fried up, add the coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer. You do not want to boil at this point anymore. Add the meat and vegetables in the order they need to cook and simmer until cooked through. I usually add my potatoes and carrots at the beginning, add the pumpkin halfway through, and add zucchini and bell peppers right near the end with a minute left.
Finally season with fish sauce, palm sugar and salt (if necessary). If you can't find palm sugar, you can use honey but start with half the amount since honey tastes sweeter than palm sugar. I highly recommend you try palm sugar because it is delicious and produced from coconut palm trees. I buy the hard pucks and chop or shave off the quantity I want into small pieces. You can also buy it in a jar as a thick paste that is scoopable and easier to dispense and dissolve.
So much love people,Christina.