THAI PANANG CURRY WITH BEEF

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon peeled roasted peanuts
2 tablespoons panang curry paste
1 cup coconut milk (do not shake)
¾ pound flap meat, flank steak or top loin (thinly sliced)
½ cup water
4 kaffir lime leaves
8 fresh basil leaves or Thai basil leaves
1½ tablespoons fish sauce
½ tablespoon sugar or palm sugar
Directions:

1. In mortar and pestle, add the peanuts and pound to finely ground. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin. Put the peanuts in a Ziploc bag and use the rolling pin to pound the peanuts. It is kind of like a chunky peanut butter.
2. In a small bowl, mix the ground peanuts with curry paste. Set aside.
3. For the coconut milk, do not shake the can. Open the can and scoop out 1/3 cup of the thick coconut cream on the top of the can.
4. In a large skillet over medium heat, add the 1/3 cup thick coconut cream. Stir and heat for 2 minutes. Add the curry paste mixture. Mix well. Add the beef slices and coat evenly with curry. Stir and mix the rest of canned coconut milk. Add 2/3 cup coconut milk and water into the curry. Bring the liquid to a boil and the beef is no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Add kaffir lime leaves, basil leaves, fish sauce and sugar. Cook for another 1 – 2 minute. Taste and adjust with more fish sauce and sugar if needed. Transfer to a medium serving bowl. Serve immediately with hot steamed rice.

Tips:

1. If you can’t find roasted peanuts, toast them yourself at home. In a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the peanuts when the pan is hot. Keep stirring until the peanuts are aromatic and golden brown.
2. The panang curry paste that I used is Mae Anong Panang Curry Paste. I got it from Amazon.
3. Do not shake the coconut milk. It’s because when coconut milk sits, it separates into 2 layers. The top is a thick coconut cream and the bottom is a more liquidly coconut milk. Normally, you will shake the can before using to mix the cream and milk together. But in this case, we want to use the coconut cream like a fat to saute with the curry paste. Please remember not to shake the can before using!
4. There are many different brands of coconut milk. They don’t taste the same. My favorite one is Aroy-D and you can get in from most Asian supermarkets and from Amazon.
5. I bought a big bag of fresh kaffir lime leaves from a Vietnamese/Chinese supermarket. Use a few and freeze the rest. You can find fresh kaffir lime leaves in Thai or Vietnamese supermarkets or Amazon. If you can’t fresh ones, you can buy dried ones too (Amazon). Use double the amount of dried leaves.

FULL RECIPES

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