Curry. There are as many types of curries as there are people that make 'em. Many of 'em unique. Some are just variations of a theme. Hopefully folks'll pick up the challenge and post a recipe for their favorite (or at leat one they know how to make) curry here.

Tonight I had a hankerin' for Panang. A coconut milk curry That I first tasted at a place in the East bay. The extra ingredient they added that made it unique for me was:


Be perfectly honest folks I thought it sounded kinda weird and was a bit put off by the idea, but the owner convinced me I would like it. He was right.

I took a trip to my local market to pick up a few fresh herbs and was hoping to get a shot of the huge tubs of the various curry pastes they have on sale there. The curry vendors had all gone home (we're expecting a flood here you know).
But I was able to get some stuff.


I picked some of the stuff I needed from this lady, some Kaffir Lime leaves (bai magroot) and fresh Basil (horapa).
Assembled the ingredients:


We've got; coconut milk, a packet of panang curry paste, one green (bell) pepper, one medium onion, a large bundle of Sweet basil, a small handfull of chilies, about 12 kaffir lime leaves, 500 grams of tenderloin and about a quarter of a Coarsely chopped Pineapple. (NO, I didn't buy one of those pinapples and clean it myself, lazy I guess) Not pitcured here is some garlic and fish sauce.

Now, we can;t just toss all this stuff in the pot and expect it taste right I kinda like the job of gettin' everything ready before I start cookin:

Stack up the lime leaves and slice 'em up nice and fine...


Squash the shit out of the garlic and chop it up so it liquifies in the pan; chop up the chilies too:

I didn;t snap a pic of hte onions and peppers but they should coarsely chopped, about like the pineapple in the picture up above.

I cut the tenderloin in three strips lengthwise then sliced it about 4 - 5 mm (3/16 in.) thick.


Now this is Thai beef and as you can see it ain;t got a bit of fat and still has a bit to much red to it. This is after I set it out to dry out a bit in the refer for two days. When you throw this in the hot pan it will bleed alot of juice out keeping the pan cool a little too long and you've got to wait bit throwing the chilies, garlic and curry paste in till the juice is almost all evaporated. If you're using proper dry aged beef this wait isn't really called for


I snapped the pic after the first spoonful of paste but believe me folks you've really gotta throw the whole damn packet in, stir it in there while everythings fryin up, don;t worry about itty bitty chunks. When you toss in the top half of the coconut milk it'll mix up just fine do this after trying to get it all mixed up:


This is a good time to add the lime leaves stir it around and then add the remainder of the cocnut milk. Stir this up nice get it all mixed in and one color. Thurn down the heat to a medium range and let it simmer about 20 minutes or so. Give the lime leaves time to get tender.


We really don't have much time after tossing in the last of the ingredients the onions should just get sweet, two maybe three minutes tops. We want the pappers and onions to bright colored and crunchy! The basil I threw in as whole leaves no need to chop 'em up really they'll wilt and add nice flavor in an instant. This is ready to plate and serve:


Now be quiet While I eat!


Anyone else got a curry recipe they wanna share? Curries come in so many flavors and styles, There's Chinese curries, Malay curries, Japanese curries (?), then there's Indian curries and that stuff from the foggy isles; they aren't supposed to be the same are they?