Sunday, October 10, 2010

Massaman Curry

There are a few dishes out there, that the first time I tried them, I wondered how I was able to enjoy life fully before I knew they existed. Pesto, for example, was one of these heavenly foods. And also avocado (I had never tried guacamole because it looked gross, and didn't first really have avocado until I was in Hawaii with my family and there was a tree with fresh ripe avocados right outside out hotel room. My father picked it, I ate it, and life was never quite the same).

One of these dishes, for me, is Massaman Curry.

Massaman is a Thai curry that is just so unique. The sauce is mainly peanut butter and coconut milk, with a heavy helping of aromatic spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and cardamom. It can be served with a variety of meats, although given the very strong flavor of the sauce, it's best with just chicken. It also usually has either potato or sweet potato, as well as other sweet vegetables such as carrots and onions.

I have never tried to make it myself, because I honestly didn't believe I could craft something so delicious. But I walked that plank tonight, I made Massaman Curry, and it was totally delicious.

I started with this basic recipe from AllRecipes. I am a very big fan of that site, at least as a good starting place for recipes, even though I rarely make things strictly according to what I find there.

I made some substitutions, and ended up making this:

Massaman Chicken
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1.5 pounds chicken breast, cut into chunked
1 large sweet potato, cubed*
Six tablespoons Patak's Tandoori paste with tamarind and ginger*
2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger
1 can coconut milk*
1/3 cup natural unsalted peanut butter*
1 cup Cashews*

* I have further commentary on the starred ingredients after the recipe.

Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and curry paste, and cook for about two minutes. Then add the chicken breast and cook for about three more minutes, until the outsides have turned white. Then add the coconut milk, peanut butter, and sweet potato, stir well until blended, and bring to a boil. Then, turn down and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender (cut the chunks very small so they won't take forever to cook). Serve over rice and sprinkle with cashews.

A word on ingredients. Many restaurants make massaman with potatoes, and you can do that if you despise sweet potatoes. But I recommend trying it with sweet potatoes, even if you don't think you love them. The flavor blends so wonderfully with the peanut butter and aromatics and coconut milk, and sweet potatoes are far healthier than white potatoes. If you do decide to go the plain white potato route, you might want to add 2 or 3 tablespoons of brown sugar to the sauce, to make up for the lost sweetness.

Curry paste is a complicated thing; there are literally dozens of them, and for non-desis such as myself, it can be a bit confusing. For the massaman, you really want something with tamarind. Apparently, there is also a product known as tamarind paste, so you can either use a paste with a lot of tamarind in it (like the one I used) or pair tamarind paste with a mild curry or garam masala paste. If you are at an Indian grocery, you may want to ask the person behind the counter to help, they will probably be more than happy to (though they will inwardly despair over you inability to make a proper curry). Pick up some Mysore sandalwood soap while you're there.

The other ingredient that you may have to get at an Indian/Asian food store is coconut milk, although my grocery store has a variety available in the Asian section.

Another important ingredient is the peanut butter. Jif just isn't going to work right.You may not know it, but most commercial peanut butter it pretty disgusting and overprocessed, is half trans-fat, and has tons of added salt and sugar. All of these things will ruin your curry. I would even be careful of the 'Natural' peanut butters--they are better, but tend to be loaded with salt, which will overload the dish.

My favorite brand is Krema, which is available at my normal grocery store. I recommend it (for everything, really, not just this curry. Peanuts are yummy all by their lonesome). If you can't find it and are someone who goes to the health food store a lot, grind up some real peanut butter (Whole Foods almost all have grinders). Or, failing that, just look at the natural peanut butters that ARE at your local grocery store and find the one with the lowest sodium content.

My husband hates nuts on food. Not the flavor of nuts (so the peanut butter based sauce it no problem), just hard nuts on his food. Even the most delicious of nuts, cashews. So I didn't serve it with cashews tonight, because I wasn't going to bother getting a whole thing of cashews if no one else was going to want them except me...especially because I knew I would then gorge myself on all the rest of the cashews afterward. I don't know how wide-spread this nut-hating trait it, but if you like cashews on your food, please use them. They are delicious.

And that's all. If I make this again, I may want to add onions or carrots.

Happy Massaman!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Teriyaki Beef

I have spent years trying to figure out how they make the food in Chinese restaurants taste so damn good. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that I don't really want to know, that it probably involves some sort of perverse processes and unearthly ingredients. So I've learned to be satisfied with the vague facsimiles I can cook up in my own kitchen.

Stir-fries have long been a favorite of mine, especially since most grocery stores even carry bags of pre-cut 'stir-fry' mixes that are pretty good. Cook up some meat and some veggies in some sesame oil (I HIGHLY recommend using sesame oil, it really adds that extra bit of flavor that makes it delicious), add a little teriyaki and, voila! -- you have a lovely fresh dinner.

But if you really want that delicious, tender, salty-sweet meat that makes Chinese food so yummy, a slow cooker can really come in handy. This recipes is a big hit with my entire family, which is a rarity.

Teriyaki Beef
1.5 pounds flat iron steak*
1 bottle teriyaki sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon minced garlic
+ Your favorite veggies

*really, a wide variety of beef cuts can work for this, but I personally like to use this cut instead of the roasts, as it's less fatty and too much grease can kill this dish

Just mix the teriyaki, sugar and garlic in a crock pot, then slice up the steak into strips and mix it in, and cook on low for 6 hours. Then, when it's done, spoon some of the sauce from the crock pot into a pan, and quickly steam some of your favorite veggies. Onions are always a good addition (normally, onions are perfect IN the crock pot, but for this recipes, it's so much better if they are still crisp and crunchy). Broccoli is good, or a mix of red and green peppers. If I weren't cooking for my family, I would definitely add in some water chesnuts, but for some bizarre reason the hubby doesn't like them.

When the veggies are tender,just mix in the beef, and then serve it all over rice.

Hope you enjoy!