How To Make Curry

Many of my friends have been surprised by how open to eating new things/making "ethnic" foods I am. Therefore, I decided to **OCCASIONALLY** post "ethnic" recipes for the benefit of those that want to branch out!

This time I'm posting on how to make Massaman Curry. This curry is a Thai curry that is generally mild in spice (good for curry beginners).

* I get my Jasmine rice cooking when I first start this recipe *

First of all, I see no problem with using mixes, ESPECIALLY for curry. I use this kind, which can be obtained at most Asian/Oriental markets:


Once opened, it has to be refrigerated. The blue lettering says, "Massaman Curry Paste".

Mix about half a cup of the paste with one can of coconut milk (I use the kind in the picture, but only because it's inexpensive. Just make sure to not get coconut cream or coconut water) and whisk together.

Bring the mix to a boil and simmer until you have the following ingredients chopped, or 10 minutes.

2 medium white or yellow onions (I use whatever I have, but prefer white because of the stronger flavor).

Dice, um.... I don't know how many carrots that was, but probably like 5? And 2 or 3 large potatoes. This recipe is obviously not exact.

I didn't take a picture of the skinless chicken thighs I used because raw poultry looks NASTY. You can use any cut of chicken, but should probably have about 3 lbs. for the same size recipe.

Use broth or stock of any sort to cover the ingredients, like so:

Bring this all to a boil, then cover and simmer for as long as you have time for, or up to 8 hours. It can be eaten immediately after the chicken is cooked through and vegetables are softened, but the flavor will deepen the longer it simmers.

Add salt to taste. It'll probably take more salt than you expect.

Finally, mix about a tablespoon of cornstarch into half a cup of water.

This part is sort of an art. You want to add your cornstarch mix slowly, until the curry thickens and starts to look glossy, like so:

Serve this over Jasmine Rice, sprinkled with Peanuts or Cashews. I also like to sprinkle fresh green onion on it, but I don't think that's traditional.

Thai food has taught me that flavor is a balance of sweet, salty, and spicy. Adjust these as you wish with ground chilies, soy sauce, honey, salt, white or brown sugar, and pretty much anything else you'd think would fit!
To make spicier curries, you can just use a different mix with the rest of this recipe.
You can change out the meat or vegetables as you like. I also love bamboo shoots and pineapple in my curries.

*STRANGE TIP OF THE DAY*: If you make your curry too spicy (other mixes can be quite piquant), you can add applesauce to the mix. This is something I discovered when I made what was perhaps the SPICIEST CURRY EVER, and didn't have any other ideas on how to save it.