Food & Drinks

The solution for when you're done with green or red curry: Thai Penang

For when you're making the same curry every week; this is another way. I took a peek for you at our neighbors from FavorFlav.com, who can whip up an artistic Thai Penang curry on the table in half an hour. Enjoy.

Do you say Thai curry? Then most people immediately think of the green or red variant. Very tasty, but Thai cuisine has so much more to offer. Think of yellow or masaman curry, to which potatoes are added. But for me, the much less known penang curry stands out head and shoulders above the rest.

You make Penang curry from red curry paste to which you add roasted peanuts. This makes it a fairly mild curry with a nutty and creamy flavor. Like most other curries, you can eat penang with chicken, beef, pork, or fish. Here’s a recipe with chicken that I received during my cooking class in Chiang Mai.

Thai penang curry

Preparation: 20 min
Preparation: 10 min
Servings: 4

Ingredients

Penang curry paste

  •   1 tsp coriander seeds
  •   7-12 large dried chilies
  • 10 g fresh galangal
  • 10 g fresh turmeric
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic
  •   10 g fresh ginger
  • 1 shallot  small strip of lime peel
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass
  • 1 tbsp roasted peanuts

The curry

  • 1 cup coconut milk
  •   1 tbsp penang curry paste
  • 50 g chicken breast, cut into thin strips
  • 1 teaspoon palm sugar
  • 2 teaspoons fish sauce
  • 2 kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin strips

Preparation

Put the coriander in a mortar and pound until you have a fine powder. Add the chilies and pound until you have a fine paste. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Pound, pound, pound until you see no more pieces and everything is a fine paste. Don't have a mortar or feeling a bit lazy? You can also just throw all the ingredients into your food processor and chop until you have a curry paste.

The curry

Place a wok on low heat and heat 2 tablespoons of coconut milk until oil appears on the surface. Mix the curry paste into the oil and let it simmer for 1 minute. Add the chicken and stir until the chicken turns white. Add the rest of the coconut milk. Then increase the heat. Add the palm sugar and fish sauce and let everything reduce to a thick, creamy sauce. Remove from heat and add the kaffir lime leaves (save a few for decoration on the plate). Serve with rice.