Sanny Posted November 6, 2007 Report Posted November 6, 2007 Anyone have a doable in the US with reasonable effort recipe for Thai panang curry? Forgive me if I've mangled the proper usage of the term. I had some over chicken the other night, and it was yummy! And I even have fish sauce in my house. It's not the same stuff as fish glop (forgive me, whatever country the glop came from) that local asian market sold me. This is clear, and less like low tide in a foetid swamp (that was the other stuff).
dub Posted November 7, 2007 Report Posted November 7, 2007 Geez-I've always been perfectly happy with the Maesri canned curries. Beats pounding garlic&galangal&chilis&fishgoop with a mortar&pestle. My def of 'resonable effort' is 'crank the opener'! There are sooo many fermented fishgoop variants and some of them are close to nuclear toxicity odor-wise. Getcher self a jar of Cambodian Prahok and see what I mean Your neighbors may call the HazMat team in tho, be warned! Plus,a jar lasts for centuries since you use a tsp in something you may make twice a year. dub(guess I'm cheat - "tin" )
Sanny Posted November 7, 2007 Author Report Posted November 7, 2007 Dub, where can one get the canned curry? I hate pounding toxic glop.
dub Posted November 9, 2007 Report Posted November 9, 2007 Just about all of my Local Asian Markets (in spite of their regional specialties) carry the Maesri brand pastes. In red,green,yellow,panang,musamun and many other flavors. And there's a recipe on every can. Maesri is like the Asian Betty Crocker! dub(and their sweet chilli garlic sauce is the bomb-diggety)
Sanny Posted November 9, 2007 Author Report Posted November 9, 2007 Ooh, thanks! We have a giant sized Korean "H Mart" nearby, and also a smaller Chinese grocery. Terrific fresh stuff! Just I never knew what to look for in the canned areas. You know, people can some strange and scary stuff!
Stewsan Posted December 9, 2007 Report Posted December 9, 2007 Sanny, just noticed your request for a panang curry recipe. I'm heading back to Thailand in a week and the wife makes a great sauce that requires minimum work. I keep a container in the fridge just to perk up leftovers. I'll post it for you next week. Best of all, it's "bug free"!!!
Sanny Posted December 10, 2007 Author Report Posted December 10, 2007 Sanny' date=' just noticed your request for a panang curry recipe. I'm heading back to Thailand in a week and the wife makes a great sauce that requires minimum work. I keep a container in the fridge just to perk up leftovers. I'll post it for you next week. Best of all, it's "bug free"!!![/quote'] Yer singin my song, Stewsan! Stuff without bugs is my kinda food.
rorkin Posted December 11, 2007 Report Posted December 11, 2007 Dub' date=' where can one get the canned curry? I hate pounding toxic glop. [/quote'] I have used the canned Thai curry's as well with great sucess. There are about 4 or 5 or more different kinds made but they all seem to be made by the outfit pictured in the previous posts.. Very available at asian grocery. I guess a purist would try to make their own.. As to the fish sauce ingredients, It all smells pretty rough but when blended in it is a wonderful and rich flavor. We do make our own indian curry's but that is basically just blending the fresh spices.
Stewsan Posted January 6, 2008 Report Posted January 6, 2008 Arghhh Sanny, after some further investigation upon returning to Thailand. I found that the "great" panang chicken the wife had been making was started with a packaged mix they sell here in Thailand. Hmmmm, now I'm wondering about the "chicken". Anyway, it is very tasty and I checked the ingredients and they appear to be haz mat free.
Sanny Posted January 6, 2008 Author Report Posted January 6, 2008 Hmm, Stewsan... They got stuff they call "oysters" in parts of the U.S., too... My advice for oysters, make sure they're served with a shell. Probably you should want some proof with your "chicken," too. Of course, when I was in China, it was easy to know if something was chicken. Feet and head were nearby on the plate!
DennisLinkletter Posted January 6, 2008 Report Posted January 6, 2008 Perfect Thai? Lobo Paste... This is what the Thai's cook with.. http://www.lobo.co.th/currypaste.html Distributed in the States by http://www.anhing.com/ This is the only one as far as I'm concerned..
Syzygies Posted January 6, 2008 Report Posted January 6, 2008 Sanny, if you ever make it up to NYC, do stop at Bangkok Center Grocery on 102 Mosco St, in Manhattan's Chinatown. Their fridge has fresh pastes of every description, from Bangkok. They freeze well, but not rock solid, and one can then pull off lumps as needed. I've taken a month of lessons in Oakland, CA from Kasma Loha-unchit, and I also spent a month on a food tour of Thailand with her. Sure many people use mixes. Many people also find the nearest outdoor market, and buy fresh coconut milk, freshly pounded curry pastes, etc. from various stalls. We have it harder, replicating these flavors in the states. Kasma's recipes for freshly pounded pastes do taste better than any prepared paste. Her panaeng curry paste calls for red chillies, white peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, nutmeg, lemon grass, kaffir lime peel, galanga, cilantro roots, roasted garlic, roasted shallots, shrimp paste, paprika. I brought back a 55 lb, one gallon Thai mortar and pestle from the trip. It makes pounding pastes like this much easier. So does a Vita-Max Vita-Prep, if one is willing to add some coconut cream to loosen the mixture. I find this cheat acceptable, because the first thing that happens to said paste is that it gets fried in more coconut cream. I highly recommend Kasma's classes. Her weekly lessons work well for locals. Her week-long intensives draw many out-of-towners, who take a week's vacation in San Francisco in order to attend these classes.
jdbower Posted January 6, 2008 Report Posted January 6, 2008 Or if you're lazy like me: http://grocerythai.com/panang-curry-pas ... p-100.html I even have kaffir lime plants for garnish
Stewsan Posted January 7, 2008 Report Posted January 7, 2008 Yup, I agree..... Lobo curry paste is the only one I've seen used here and at .30 a pack, easier than trying to make from scratch I guess.
Sanny Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Posted January 24, 2008 Grocery store annoyance I stopped last evening at the H-mart, a large Asian grocery near me. It's Korean based, but has quite a lot of other Asian foods. Nope. Not only couldn't I find Lobo, but I couldn't find panang curry paste at all! There were a handful of curries, but nothing recognizable. And no Thai red or green chili pastes at all. But if you need 900 different soy sauces, that's your place! There's a Chinese based market nearby, too, so I'll try that. It might be that I either have to rely on the "stuff" in the international aisle of the local grocery ($3 for a tablespoon of paste!), or go into center city Philadelphia to Chinatown. That, of course, adds $3 for the bridge, plus parking, just to get curry paste! I think the internet is my friend - mail order r us!
rorkin Posted January 27, 2008 Report Posted January 27, 2008 Re: Perfect Thai? Lobo Paste... This is what the Thai's cook with.. http://www.lobo.co.th/currypaste.html Distributed in the States by http://www.anhing.com/ This is the only one as far as I'm concerned.. I tried some of their Yellow Curry last night and it was terrific
Sanny Posted January 27, 2008 Author Report Posted January 27, 2008 Excellent! What did you fix in it? Or did you just eat it with a spoon out of the package?
rorkin Posted January 27, 2008 Report Posted January 27, 2008 First used 1 cup of cocunut cream ( the stuff that rises to the top of cocunut milk) and heated with the curry till oil appeared on surface.. Then cooked in some cubed chicken breast , then another cup of cocunut milk. Cooked in some cubed potato and onion till soft. Served on Basmati rice with basil garnish .. Voila.. Yellow curry is very spicy but not really hot.
Sanny Posted February 2, 2008 Author Report Posted February 2, 2008 Making progress Thanks to Stewsan, I know what I'm looking for when I search for panang paste from Lobo. I went back to the H Mart (Korean grocery) and found the brand, but not panang. There are two varieties of satay sauce in that brand, and some soup base, but not any panang curry paste. I feel closer to success, though. In honor of the progress, I picked up the satay (both types). So, I guess I have to figure that out next. Step one... start with a chicken. lol
