Massaman Curry Recipe.

Planet X

Had one in Diep Noodles a while back, superb. Cooked one a few weeks ago, not bad. It's a cracking curry, radically different from Paki / Indian curries. Googled and saved a couple of recipes but don't seem to be as nice as the Diep one.
It had star anise, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon cassia bark, cardamon pods etc etc.
Short of going out and buying a Thai book, shouldn't have to, it's all on tinterweb, can anyone find me a good recipe akin to Diep.

Cheers.

The Sweeper

Never eaten in Diep Noodles, but I'll help you try to narrow it down.

Massaman curry should have a coconut base, and include the flavours you listed above, but also flavours of shrimp paste, lemongrass, galangal and tamarind and fish sauce.

You'll probably be best off either trying to buy a massaman curry paste from a good ethnic supermarket to make your life easy, or making the paste yourself. There are a lot of curry paste recipes on the internet for massaman paste.

Here is the recipe from scratch that the Wikipedia link out to - after reading through it I think this looks like it would be very accurate (but a good bit of work). The curry paste listed here looks very accurate - I recommend you use a food processor for this step, but as the recipe said, even if you just substitute a store-bought paste, the rest of the method in this recipe will make an excellent curry.

http://www.chezpim.com/blogs/2003/07/massaman_nuea_b.html

(Using a good food processor makes creating curry pastes a lot easier - especially since if you're like me, you won't be adding sliced shallots - oh no, they can go in whole or in half, after all, it's all being blitzed to a pulp!)

Also, never underestimate the place that salt and sugar hold in restaurant curries. Most restaurants use more salt in their recipes than you'd ever use when cooking something at home, and it does affect the flavours.

Planet X

Thanks JD, yes, the time I made it I used Patis (fish sauce) and coconut milk etc etc.
Would always make my own curry from scratch using an onion, garlic, ginger puree / paste as a base, or as required in alot of the Curry club recipes.

Going to add Tamarind and spuds to the one this weekend as recommended in some recipes.

Swampy

Love it. When I used to eat it in Thailand, it had onions, potato and most importantly chunks of sweet potato. and nuts.

Savage stuff. Also if you like that you might also like a penang curry.

longshanks

Planet X wrote: »

Thanks JD, yes, the time I made it I used Patis (fish sauce) and coconut milk etc etc.
Would always make my own curry from scratch using an onion, garlic, ginger puree / paste as a base, or as required in alot of the Curry club recipes.

Going to add Tamarind and spuds to the one this weekend as recommended in some recipes.

there's a curry club??

Planet X

The Curry Club, Pat Chapman.

nice1franko

Swampy wrote: »

Love it. When I used to eat it in Thailand, it had onions, potato and most importantly chunks of sweet potato. and nuts.

Savage stuff. Also if you like that you might also like a penang curry.

+1 ... panang curry is gorgeous and *very* easy to make. Buy a tub of the curry paste in any asian supermarket (and while yer there pick up a tub of the green curry paste and a tub of chicken stock powder)

curry paste, 3/4 tin of coconut milk and chicken in a pot/wok til chicken is cooked ... add spoon of chicken stock and rest of the tin of coconut milk... bobs yer uncle.

seriously, this stuff is gold on a cold winter eve

Glowing

Massaman curry is my ABSOLUTE favourite - Saba do a wicked recipe ...

I've tried to make it numerous times with a curry paste from an Asian supermarket - didn't find it had the same deep nutty flavour, and it was a bit too spicy on the outside, no flavours on the inside (am I talking crap?)

If you find a good recipe, I'd love to get it from you!

Edit:

I've got the most amazing green curry recipe. Now I just use Amoy curry paste (it's the best bar homemade) and coconut milk, but you add Potatoes, Chicken, Tamarind Paste, sugar, roasted peanuts (roast a few under the grill), and fish sauce.

It's fabulous.

Planet X

Just ran up this Massaman paste,

http://thaifood.about.com/od/thaicurrypasterecipes/r/massamanpaste.htm


and cooked this beef curry,http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/182/massaman+beef+curry,

but was surprised that there was no Star Anise in either? Weird?

tfak85

they sell massman curry paste in dunnes and tesco and i find it really hard to order and but that from diep!
the best massman curry i ever cooked was a lamb one, cooked for about 3hours until the lamb was simply melting in the mouth!

i want some now...

Mr Yellow

I'd dang kill for a deaaacent massaman, useda ask me restauranteur for it 'ped nit noi'... a little spicy! Not the way its meant to be but a lot of my friends that lived there at teh time vouched for it...
& a few singha to wash it down... mmmmm

& cheers for the recipe Planet X...

Gregsor

One of my favourites too,i use the paste from the Asian wholesale and can`t flaw it on convenience or flavour!

Must have chunks of potato and a sprinkling of roast peanuts with fresh Basil thrown through at the end before serving for oodles of texture and flavours;).

I prefer Lamb when making this dish.

I used to work in a Thai restaurant in Oz and whilst the Massaman was not a menu item it did frequent the specials,and Penang flew out the door in a seafood variation.

Man i used to have the munchies when i got home .

Planet X

Yes, but it's extremely easy to make if you've got the ingredients. You know what's in it as opposed to a load of preservatives and E numbers.
I've got a batch in the fridge for another two curries. Dead handy.