Massaman Curry - Beef, Pork or Lamb

Massaman Curry

Serves 6

This rich and aromatic Thai curry is based on Indian flavours and is a much milder than most other Thai curry. Its always a crowd pleasure and something the whole family will love. Perfect to do with our Diced Beef or home butchered Lamb Shoulder, Whole Rump pieces or even Pork Neck. The fat in all these meats adds great depth to the dish.

Needs

1kg Lamb, Beef or Pork – diced in 3 cm pieces but even better on the bone
2 tablespoons canola oil
120g Massaman curry Paste (Mae Ploy preferred otherwise Valcom)
1 large brown onion finely diced
1 cinnamon quill
2 star anise
2 large potatoes
½ cup peanuts
1 tin coconut milk
1 tin coconut cream
Palm Sugar (or Brown Sugar)
Fish Sauce
Optional veg 4 baby corn, and 4 baby eggplants

Jasmine Rice and Coriander to serve

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Prep Time

10 Minutes
Cooking Time
2 hours

 

Method

Preheat your oven to 140 degrees – low heat

In a heavy casserole dish with a lid, heat ½ Tablespoon of oil to hot heat on the stove and brown half the meat cubes in the pot turning frequently to prevent sticking. Once brown on all sides remove all the meat and put into a bowl big enough to hold all the meat on the side of the stove. Add another ½ Tablespoon oil and repeat with the rest of the meat. Remove meat to the bowl with other browned meat

Add remaining Tablespoon oil to the hot pan, add curry paste and diced onion and stir on high heat for 2 minutes until paste becomes fragrant and onion and paste starts to colour a little. Add 1 tin coconut milk to the casserole dish and reduce heat. Scrape any onion, meat bits and curry paste off the bottom and slowly heat up almost to the boil. Add 1 heaped dessert spoon of Palm (or Brown) sugar and 1 teaspoon fish sauce.

Once liquid is hot, add cinnamon, star anise and the browned meat plus any juices that are in the bowl. Add ½ tin coconut cream and enough water to cover the meat by 1cm if required. Place casserole dish in the oven at 140 degrees for 1 hour with lid on.

Peel potatoes and cut into quarters so they are roughly the same size as the meat chunks. Prep optional veg by cutting corn and eggplant in half legthways

After 1 hour cooking, remove the casserole dish and stir the curry scraping down any brown bits on the side into the curry sauce. Add all potatoes, veg and peanuts at this stage and return curry to the oven for another hour.

Remove from oven. Meat should be just falling a part and potatoes should be cooked, otherwise cook for another 15 minutes. Once done, the curry will look a bit watery on top and slightly curdled, but this is normal. Let it cool for 10 minutes then stir in the remaining ½ tin coconut cream to bring the curry back to a delicious smooth and creamy meal. Leave to cool and divide into takeaway containers for freezing/storage.

When reheating do not to bring to the boil as the coconut cream will split again. Heat only to 75 degrees

Serve with steamed rice and garnish with coriander