Any Thai food experts on here?

Question

I love that dish called Massaman (excuse spelling) - it's the one with chicken in a thick peanut sauce. But my Thai cookbook doesn't mention it, and my Thai contacts locally say they use a packet sauce, believe it or not! I want to know how to make it from scratch, mixing the spices etc up myself, not using a packet mix.

Answer 1

Masaman curry is not peanut sauce. The sauce is made with coconut milk and curry powder. It sometimes has a few crushed peanuts on top; maybe that is what you're thinking of. Also, Masaman is not chicken. It can be made with chicken, and it can also be made with other meats. It is generally served with avocado slices.

Answer 2

Not an expert but I love Thai food:

Massaman Curry is a popular dish from the south of Thailand. Its flavors are indicative of Malaysian curries, with warm spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. Added to this mixture are lemongrass, red chili, plus cumin and coriander seeds cooked together in coconut milk for a fragrant, rich-tasting curry.

Great info & recipes:

http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/feature...

http://thaifood.about.com/od/thairecipes...

http://www.asianonlinerecipes.com/online...

http://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipes/Ma...

Answer 3

I'm not an expert but just read the question to my boyfriend who is!

Musaman curry paste:

1 tablespoon corriander seeds

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

seeds from 4 cardamon pods

2 teaspoons black peppercorns

1 tablespoon shrimp paste

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

15 dried red chillies or 10 fresh

1/2 cup  chopped shallots

2 lemon grass finely chopped

6 cloves garlic chopped

1 tablespoon of oil

Dry roast corriander seeds and cumin seeds in pan for 30 secs, grind to powder with black peppercorns, put in blender then add the rest of ingredients and blend untill smooth.

Add 1-3 tablespoons of the above paste (depending how hot you like it) to hot oil, add onions, meat of choice untill browned then add coconut milk and simmer. garnish with peanuts

Hope that helps

Alternatively here is a recipe for thai curry paste with peanuts in which I think might be the one your looking for:

Penang curry paste:

8 red chillies

2 tspn shrimp paste

1/2 cup chopped shallots

5 cm fresh galangal or ginger chopped

12 garlic cloves chopped

4 corrriander roots chopped

3 lemon grass chopped

1 tbspb grated lime rind

1 tspn blabk pepper corns

2 tbspn oil

1 tbsn fish sauce

1 tspn salt

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

Blitz to a paste, use as above recipe and freeze the rest.

Answer 4

Masaman (Muslim) curry paste

Kruang Kaeng Masaman

7-10 dried red chillies

2 tablspns oil

2 med onions chopd

1 tblspn chpd garlic

1 tspn dried shrimp paste

2 teaspns finely chpd lemon grass, or lemon rind

1 tablespn choppd galangal, or 2 teaspns powdered

2 tablespns coriander seeds or ground

2 teaspons cummin seeds or ground

1 teaspon fennel seeds or ground

1 teaspn ground cinnamon

half teaspon grnd cardamom

same of nutmeg

pinch of ground cloves

"Influenced by the Muslims of India, as eveidenced by the use of fragrant spices, makes about 3/4 of a cup.

Break chillies, shake out the seeds and soak chillies in hot water 10-15 mins.  Heat oil and fry onions garlic over low heat untul soft, add shrimp paste and fry a min, crushing it with back of spoon.  Remove from heat and when cool put into the container of blender with soaked chillies, drained, lemon grass and galangal. blend till smooth, add water if necessary to facilitate blementing.  In a dry pan roast the coriander seeds until brown shaking frequently.  turn onto plate, do cummin and fennel seeds sligtly.  Pound all seeds combine with pureed onion garlic etc, add cinnamon cardamom nutmeg and cloves.  Bottle & store in refrigerator.