Far be it from me, a dedicated home cook, to extol the virtues of fast food. In fact, I don’t really believe there is such a thing as “good fast food,” though if you happen to be strolling around some street market in Asia you’re bound to get good food fast. So I surprised even myself when I was at Whole Foods the other day scanning the Asian section for new or interesting products and my eyes rested on a little can, much like the kind that cat food comes in, that advertised Masaman Curry Paste. I say “advertised,” because at the time I didn’t believe that this can would produce a decent Masaman curry, one of my favorite dishes from Thailand.
I picked it up and read the label: “Product of Thailand.” That was a good sign at least, as well as the fact that the ingredients and instructions were in English and Thai. A look at the ingredients revealed “garlic, sugar, soybean oil, dried red chilies, tamarind juice, shallot, salt, lemon grass, spices (coriander seeds, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, lesser galanga, cloves), kaffir lime, galangal, citric acid.” This was another good sign—no artificial ingredients or preservatives—and it included all the elements used to make a good Thai curry. All you had to add was the meat (either chicken or beef), coconut milk, potatoes and onions. Hmmm, interesting. The tiny black and white
photo of a Thai lady on the label—presumably the Maesri company’s founder—sealed the deal, and I dropped the can in my shopping basket.
A few days passed. Now here we are firmly in the dog days of August when even turning on the stove-top is a stretch. This is the time for grilling outside, or better yet, quick prep meals and salads. But today I was craving curry for lunch, so you know what I did? I popped open that can of Masaman curry paste, mixed in some coconut milk, beef, potatoes, and onions and stirred everything together in a pot. You know I had to lace it with a couple spoonfuls of cayenne pepper for good measure.
Hardly, 30 minutes later, I had a nice fragrant, appetizing pot of Thai Masaman curry—still not spicy enough for my palate, but flavorful, complex, and best of all, quick and easy. Poured over some brown rice, the Masaman curry provided a downright decent meal. Of course, I would have preferred to make it myself from scratch, but not on a sticky day like today. The morale of the story: sometimes it pays to take risks with food—even fast food.
Awesome…looks so yum & filled with that spicy goodness I love !
I will whip it up on one of my ‘curry missing days’… hope the masaman is available at my grocer !
(We love Thai Curries too btw)
I have been drooling over David Thompson’s massaman recipe in the ‘Curry Cuisine” book you recommended. The curry picture there looks so unbelievably thick, rich and complex.. but it also appears to be closer to a 3 hour prep time with some difficult-to-find ingredients like Cassia leaves.
I generally prefer to make recipes from scratch to know how it “should” taste so I can adjust canned seasonings from there – but I have had downright decent results with jar Panang curry paste fried in coconut cream. Doesn’t complete with the spectacular firework flavors that come out of my mortar – but it’s damn decent enough for lunch. No complaints. I know exactly what you mean.
I will definitely try this brand of paste for mussaman soon!
p.s. the sour tuna curry in your book tastes spectacular after a couple of days in the fridge. an acquired taste.. lightly shocking to my palette at first bite… but by the time i finished off the batch I was dreaming and scheming to make more@
Hi Skiz, Just in case you don’t already know, …you were mentioned here a few days ago…
http://londonlanka.blogspot.com/2009/08/lately-in-lankanosphere.html
Later…mtc
Thanks, Ma!
Skiz,
Reading this post around lunch time was just too tempting.
I fried some Mae-ploy Panang curry paste in coconut cream, adding shrimp, palm sugar and finely torn lime leaves… garnished with sliced chiles and a handful of fresh Thai basil.
I reckon I got about 85% of the taste (which is a solid B+) with only 15% of the pounding and effort. It was delicious, not just “okay.”
Penang paste seems to make an especially good candidate for ‘curry in a hurry.’
Will try canned massaman soon, and making my own massaman paste to compare and learn the subtleties.
Brett:
You are a true curry fiend like myself. Can’t wait to try the penang paste.
Thanks,
Skiz
I made the massaman with this brand of paste today and it was great. Good enough to lick the for and plate. Deep frying the potatoes, onions and peanuts and then draining them helped make it tasty.
The thing I am trying to learn, when working with coconut milk and cream, is to get the curries to separate correctly. My first attempts at Thai curry, maybe 5 years ago, would always result in this thin, spicy cocount milk soup that didn’t have any texture or detail. The really luscious stuff I remember from SE Asia has this marbled, swirling texture where the water, oil and coconut fat solids visibly separated to some degree. Parts were thin and oily, parts were thick and spicy-laden, like marinara sauce.
From what I am unraveling, it has to do with using different qualities of both coconut milk and cream… different heats… and timing it properly.
This recipe taught me a bit about how to make a thicker curry:
http://www.realthairecipes.com/recipes/panang-curry/
p.s. Yes I am a budding curry fiend, but I am also a rice fiend. I have a Zojirushi induction heat rice cooker from Japan… and about 15 different kinds of rice in my cabinet. My favorite is GABA-activated brown rice. It has a very refreshing, almost sedative-like quality after consuming it that is noticable over regular rice. Truly the king of carbohydrates.