Panang Curry

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Dive into a symphony of flavors with homemade classic Panang Curry.

Fragrant kaffir lime leaves and creamy coconut milk create a base for a rich, velvety sauce. Warm chilies offer a spicy kiss, balanced by the nutty sweetness of peanuts for a unique and captivating taste. Select your preferred protein, This recipe uses chicken, and shrimp, each perfectly cooked and infused with the curry’s essence.

Optional Vegetables: Enhance your dish with vibrant bell peppers, mushrooms, and crisp snow peas for added texture and color. Serve with fluffy Jasmine rice, the perfect vessel to soak up every delicious bite. Garnish your Panang with fresh Thai basil leaves, if available, adding a final burst of fragrance and flavor.

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♦Prep time:20min ♦Cook time:20min ♦Yield: 5servings.

You can strike through ingredients, as you prep them, by clicking on the ingredient.

Ingredients:

For the Panang Red Curry Paste:

Method:

1. First, make the Panang Red Curry Paste: Add peeled shallots and garlic, chopped red chilies, galangal, lemongrass, and coriander root to a strong spice grinder or small (mixer-jar). Add, roasted (peeled) peanuts shrimp paste, and dried red chili paste.
2. Dry toast the whole spices (coriander and cumin seeds) in a small dry pan for one minute, stirring. Add this to the grinder also.
3. Grind these ingredients, without adding any water, to get as smooth a paste as possible. (Galangal is quite fibrous, and must be ground well). This paste can also be made using a pestle and mortar.
4. Cook the Curry paste: Heat oil in a wide wok. Add 1/2 cup of coconut milk first, and cook on medium heat till it becomes very thick, like a thickened clotted cream.
5. Add the spice paste and stir well to incorporate evenly. Simmer till the oil separates. Keep adjusting heat, to prevent the spice paste from catching. You can add the coconut sugar to taste at this point.
6. Once the paste is fragrant, the raw spices have cooked, and the oil has separated, add the chicken pieces. Toss well to coat and fry the pieces in this paste well. Add a dash of water, so the paste does not get burnt on the sides of the wok. Continue to stir and fry on high heat, till the chicken pieces are no longer pink, and are nicely coated in the spice paste.
7. Add the prawns and toss them in also, again just till the prawns are coated in sauce and turn opaque.
8. Now it’s time to add the remaining coconut milk.  Once the coconut milk is added, on a maintained high heat stir briskly and continuously as it comes to a simmer ( to prevent curdling). Stir well till the color is evenly distributed.
9. Once simmered,  add the straw mushrooms, kaffir lime leaves. Also add fish sauce, and/or salt to taste. It is optional to add some white pepper powder and lime juice to taste.
10.  Stir well. Add water or dilute coconut milk as needed to adjust the consistency. Turn down the heat. Simmer for 5-8 minutes. The chicken and prawns should be cooked tender.
11.  To serve, add julienned red chili over the top. Adding the chiffonaded kaffir lime leaves and the Thai sweet basil leaves is optional.
12. Serve hot with White steamed Rice/ Jasmine Rice.

Panang Curry

Notes:

How to grind lemongrass so that it is not fibrous while grinding for Curry pastes:

• One trick is the slice the lemongrass and then pound it before adding it to a small spice grinder.
• Using a Nutri Bullet or Vitamix blender is an option to get a smoother paste. Standard blenders or food processors will not do a good job.
• Traditional Thai curries will have the entire paste pounded using a stone mortar and pestle. It gives the best results.
• I like using a small grinder jar, it gives an almost perfect spice paste every time, to remove any stubborn fibers, simply press through a fine mesh strainer. (Adding a bit of water to the paste to dilute, helps). This way all those fibres will be removed perfectly.

• You can cook this curry with only chicken, only prawns too. It can also be made with beef. Cooking time for beef is longer and you can sear the beef depending on the cut you are using.
• This curry can also be made vegetarian. Long beans, sugar snap peas, and bell peppers are often added. I love adding straw mushrooms. Puffed Tofu can also be added.
• For those with peanut allergies, cashew nuts may be used as a substitute.
• I use Kara coconut cream at room temperature, mixed with water to make the required amount of coconut milk. Roughly one part coconut cream to one part water.
• You can also make homemade coconut milk – see how.
• How to make Dried Red Chilli Paste

Key Ingredients: Chicken, Prawns, Mushrooms, Coconut Milk, Coconut Sugar, Fish Sauce, Oil, Spice Paste(Chillies, Shallot Garlic, Galangal, Lemongrass, Kaffir lime leaves, Coriander root, Peanuts, Shrimp Paste, Dried Chilli Paste)

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Panang Curry

Author: Shana Shameer