Mae Ploy massaman paste

Escapees

I've been using Mae Ploy curry pastes for a while now but just tried their Massaman one for the first time. It wasn't spicy at all nor did it taste or smell of lemongrass (supposedly two of the main ingredients) - just a rather dull curry that could have come from a jar of generic curry sauce.

Does anyone use this paste and if so, does it seem like I got a dud tub or are the ingredients listed on the tub simply wrong (not something new to Mae Ploy!)?

Just to be clear, there's absolutely no heat or spice kick at all from the paste, even though it's meant to have half the red chilli as the red curry paste???

rubadub

Sounds odd. I am not sure which I got before, massaman or red paste and it was gone off before it was finished, this was since it was very hot and I was only using very small amounts -I think it was massaman as I would have expected red paste to be hot and wanted something milder.

I use their yellow curry paste and it certainly tastes strongly of lemongrass.

As you use others I presume you know how they look. Here is massaman.


I wondered if the pouches got mixed up in teh tub somehow, but they have no paste you would expect to have no kick to it. Even the yellow one is strong enough, and easily distinguished.

Off topic tip, I do not cut the bags open like in that photo. I think some do and pour it into the tups. I snip a small corner off the bag and squeeze it out like toothpaste, then fold it over and stick it in the tub.

Was the tub in date? some Asian shops have out of date stock, I always make sure to check, even still I would expect it to be spicy.

Escapees

rubadub wrote: »

Off topic tip, I do not cut the bags open like in that photo. I think some do and pour it into the tups. I snip a small corner off the bag and squeeze it out like toothpaste, then fold it over and stick it in the tub.

Was the tub in date? some Asian shops have out of date stock, I always make sure to check, even still I would expect it to be spicy.

Thanks so much for your reply. The paste looks just like the picture you gave and the tub is well within date. Funny enough, I also open the bags like you do - although 'toothpaste' is a pleasant way of describing what can sometimes look like... umm... better not plant that notion in your head when it comes to food!!

I usually use the green, red and yellow pastes and these all have a kick, but there is absolutely no heat at all off this Massaman paste. To prove it to myself, I made a curry with 100g of paste as a test and still no heat or kick at all - just a pretty salty curry as you might have guessed! It tasted mildly Indian with no Thai'ness to it.

Think I'll just get through the tub and avoid it for a while - has put me off Mae Ploy but then again the tubs are for nothing really compared to buying the branded supermarket pastes!!

BeansBeans

Massaman is always a very mild curry. And definitely leans more towards burmese style of food. Indian/cham influence i would assume. I always think of it as being a kind of comfort food, although not exciting.

Alun

Yes, I was going to say that too, Massaman isn't meant to be a hot curry. I've made my own from scratch a few times and it's pretty close to what I've made from this paste, I'd say it's more of a spicy stew than a curry as such. By the way, did you follow the recipe and add the potatoes? If not that could be why it tasted a bit salty as the potatoes will absorb some of the salt during cooking.

Escapees

Alun wrote: »

Yes, I was going to say that too, Massaman isn't meant to be a hot curry. I've made my own from scratch a few times and it's pretty close to what I've made from this paste, I'd say it's more of a spicy stew than a curry as such. By the way, did you follow the recipe and add the potatoes? If not that could be why it tasted a bit salty as the potatoes will absorb some of the salt during cooking.

Kinda did my own thing with it but the only reason the last curry was salty was because I used 100g of paste for 2 people! - Just to see if there would be any heat or kick from it at all!! Read somewhere on the net that the paste ingredients for Massaman are often roasted before making the paste so maybe that's the reason there's no kick from the red chillies compared to the other pastes from Mae Ploy...

Red Rua

Slightly off topic - but what's the Mae Ploy yellow curry like. I have never tried it.

Escapees

Red Rua wrote: »

Slightly off topic - but what's the Mae Ploy yellow curry like. I have never tried it.

It's more Indian than Thai in flavour, but tastier in a way and not as hot as the red or green curries. Used to be my favourite but went off it in the end as it tasted neither fully Indian nor Thai! If I were to have some in the morning now (not literally!), I'd prob try out using cream, yoghurt or tomatoes as a base instead of coconut milk...