We were lucky enough to have Bridget from Curry Favour share with us her recipe for cooking up a Beef Massaman Curry. It's a rich, fragrant curry and the meat just falls apart, the perfect comfort food!
Ingredients:
1x 400ml can coconut cream
120ml water
800g slow cook cut of beef (chuck, blade, brisket or beef cheek)
1 pinch sea salt
70g Curry Favour Massaman paste
2 tbsp light flavoured oil
2 tbsp palm sugar (or to taste)
50 grams tamarind pulp
2 – 3 tbsp Fish sauce (or to taste)
500 grams dutch cream potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters lengthways
1 cup of roasted peanuts, half pounded/blitzed
Fried crispy shallots to garnish
Method:
Place beef, 375 ml of the coconut cream (reserve the rest for garnishing), water and a pinch of sea salt into a heavy based pan. Add more water if needed to ensure the meat is covered. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook with the lid on over a low heat for two hours or until tender. Once tender, turn the heat off and allow the meat to rest in the braising liquid for 30 minutes. Once rested, remove beef from liquid and set aside. Reserve beef cooking liquid for your curry.
Place tamarind pulp in a bowl and cover with 80 grams of warm water. Set aside for 5 minutes. Squeeze tamarind pulp in the bowl to combine with the warm water. Set a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and push the tamarind through with the back of a spoon. Discard leftover seeds.
Heat oil in a heavy based pot and cook out the Massaman curry paste for 3- 5 minutes over a medium heat. Deglaze with 2-3 tbsp of fish sauce.
Add thereserved beef cooking liquid. Add the palm sugar and 1-2 tbsp of the tamarind liquid depending on how sour you like it.
Add potatoes and simmer until cooked.
Add the slow cooked beef and ¾ cup of the toasted peanuts. Reduce the curry until you reach the desired sauce thickness.
Taste the curry - check and adjust the final seasoning – if you require it to be sweeter, add more palm sugar. Saltier, add more fish sauce or a pinch of sea salt. More sour, add more tamarind.
Top with remaining peanuts, a swirl of the coconut cream using a spoon and crispy shallots.
Notes:
If the coconut cream is too thick when garnishing your curry, add a little bit of water and stir well. Tamarind pulp is available at Asian grocers.
Peanuts are optional – all of our curry pastes are strictly nut and seed free.
A delicious addition to this Massaman is ripe pineapple – add chunks when adding the potatoes but adjust palm sugar seasoning as the pineapple will affect the sweetness of the dish. This dish is always eaten best the next day!
You can use chicken for this dish – chicken on the bone (slow cook for 40 minutes), chicken thighs (slow cook for 30 minutes) which are more forgiving than chicken breast.
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