Masaman Beef Curry

March 8th, 2009 · No Comments · Food Porn

This is not Paleo, but it's not crap, either. About 3-4 times per year I can't help but prepare my favorite dish: Masaman beef curry, which you can get in most Thai restaurants, but none as good as mine. I've been eating and making this for myself for 20 years. When I go to a Thai restaurant, I have someting different, and masaman. I have vacationed for months in Thailand, and so I'm very familiar and can sniff it out anywhere along the countryside. Before I came back from France to America and became a typical fattie, my favorite breakfast -- while vacationing in Thailand -- was steamed rice, green chillies (lots) and eggs over easy. Every morning, in front of the International Herald Tribune, in an outside bar on the beach.

Those days...

Basic ingredients are beef, onion, carrots, sweet potato, coconut milk, and masaman curry paste. In this mix, I did three pounds of cubed beef, 2 cans coconut milk, a whole can masaman curry paste, one yellow onion, three carrots, and 3/4 of one white sweet potato. In addition, there are peanuts. Probably nearly a half cup. Get them in the shells, unsalted, soak 'em for hours if you have time. It was probably a half cup and it's really essential for the integrity of the dish; and, you're not eating this daily.

Braise your beef in a bit of water for an hour or so before. In the meantime, get the coconut milk, curry paste, and peanuts (see below) going. Transfer the beef, but not the braising juices. As you cook the curry & beef mixture, reduce the braising juices on medium high heat. When reduced to some thickness, add back in. In the last 30 minutes, add in the carrots and sweet potato.

Rice can be whatever you want from saffron to jasmine, brown, whatever. Masaman has some sugar in it (about 5 teaspoons for the batch, so less than one teaspoon per serving). I have found that this sweetness goes very well with cinnamon rice. Typically, I add two cinnamon sticks to the boiling water the rice goes in. I had none this time, so used powder. It worked.

Preparation of this is a bit tricky to get it great, so your guests kiss your feet and exclaim how it's both the best and most unusual flavor they've ever tasted in their entire lives (it is...awesome). My suggestion, if you're really interested, is find the best Thai restaurant in town, order Masaman (sometimes: 'mussman'), and learn first how it ought to taste. This is not a dish you want to do anything but 100% right, because anything else is a huge disappointment, it's that damn good.