Panang Curry

If you only have ground cumin and coriander, halve the measurements the recipe calls for

These are my suggestions if you are buying pre-made paste. 1) Don't buy American brands of Curry paste or coconut milk. I buy Maesri curry paste, Chaokoh coconut milk and/or Mae Ploy coconut cream. 2) I like lots of sauce, so I combine one 4oz can of curry paste with one 19oz can coconut cream and one 13.5oz can of coconut milk. 3) for sauce, first combine the fatty portion of coconut cream and milk with the paste until it begins to look like peanut butter, then add remaining ingredients.

Here's two more tips. 1) serving on top of rice can dilute curry flavor. serve on the side instead. 2) I use pre-cooked meat. Buy a Costco chicken and shred, then dice. I prefer pork, so I buy a big pork shoulder, slow cook it, shred it, dice it, divide into multiple servings, and freeze them. When it's time to make curry, I pull a bag of pork out of the freezer and use that. Buying a big pork shoulder also saves money. I use the shredded pork for many different recipes: curry, tacos, BBQ.

We always have a few cans of Maesri curry paste in the pantry. It makes for a very quick and easy meal that doesn't taste quick and easy. I use a bit less than the can directions call for. About 1/2 can with 1 can of coconut milk (there's 2 of us). The other 1/2 can gets frozen.

I learned almost exactly this recipe at a cooking school in Thailand and it’s delicious! Highly recommend Maesri brand curry paste. It’s a bit spicy so I usually use around half a can per pound of meat. I also add in 1/4 teaspoon of tamarind paste.

The two best curry paste brands are Mae Ploy and Maesri.

substitute for peanuts in the curry: almond butter substitute for fish sauce: Yondu Vegetable Umami Sauce. Excellent replacement for fish sauce in all recipes it calls for!

As someone who is incorrigibly (genetic) Irish I use a large potato, either nuked or baked, in the place of rice for Panang, Green, and Red, but a sweet potato with Massaman. Maesri or M.P. are both good pastes. I used to make my own paste but it's a 45-minute plus Metro to the Thai store for coriander roots. At any rate, works for me.

Made this as written last night using 3.5oz of Thai Kitchen brand red curry paste , the toasted spices, dry-roasted peanuts and, Thai Kitchen brand organic, unsweetened coconut milk chilled. Only had dried lime leaves and fished them out before serving. Used boneless, skinless chicken thighs sliced whilst still semi frozen. All round winner. Word of caution - four adults cleared their bowls and asked if there were seconds! Will double the recipe next time just to get some left overs.

Maesry actually makes a Panang curry paste. Not as easy to find as their red or green, but often available in Asian supermarket.

Coconut milk varies widely in its make up. Some cheap brands have as little as 25% coconut. Look at the ingredients, you should not accept less than 60%, some brands go up to 85% plus... Not all coconut milks are the same, it will makes a huge difference to the taste.

I believe if you refrigerate your can of coconut milk, it will separate, MaryP.

This was easy and tasty. Added green beans which worked out great. Next time will up the curry paste and the entire red pepper. A keeper

The recipe says you can substitute 1 teaspoon grated lime zest for the makrut lime leaves

You can buy vegan/vegetarian fish sauce (soy-based) for dietary restrictions, but there is really no substitute when cooking Thai food. When I first started cooking Thai food decades ago I omitted or reduced the fish sauce because it smelled terrible and I didn't think I'd like it. Then I tried the food with and without it and have never omitted again!