Curry

[Charlie]

When you guys make curry, do you make it from scratch or use the ready made pastes (to which you add coconut milk)? I use a brand called Mae Ploy (for Thai curry), which is pretty good, but I'm wondering how it compares to curry made from scratch. How do restaurants make it?

Has anyone tried to make Indian curry, like Vindaloo? The ingreadients aren't that commonly available. I assume there are pastes for that as well, but there aren't any Indian grocery stores nera me.

[ellencho]

I make both Thai and Indian curries. The Mae Ploy ready made pastes are awesome and they last forever. Luckily for me, I live in a good area for spice shopping so I've never used a mix before. I do know however, that Trader Joe's has ready made simmer sauces to which you can add meat and veggies and make an easy meal.

[kalbi]

Japanese/Korean curries. All the way. Hail, Otoogi! :P

[seoulbrotherno1]

Corean and Japanese curries have their own 매력 appeal, but Thai curry is the only way to go for seoulbrother.

I use this stuff out of a can called "Maesri." Below is my recipe for Curry:

Thai Red Curry

Ingredients:
Sliced Beef
Bamboo Shoots
Baby Corn
Two cans of Coconut Milk
Thai Red Curry Paste
Fish Sauce (Three Crabs brand)
Fresh Limes
Kaffir Lime Leaf (2 or 3, minced)
Palm Sugar (you can substitute brown sugar)
Thai Bird Chiles (minced)
Thai Basil (minced)

Spoon coconut cream into a wok on medium heat. Stir curry paste (to taste) into the cream. (Don`t be bashful with the curry paste, you`ll add the remainder of the coconut milk, as well as the other ingredients later. This will diminish the strength of the curry taste.) Cook this mixture of coconut cream and curry paste until simmering and fragrant.

Add beef to the mixture and continue stirring. Cook until beef is no longer red. Add the remaining coconut milk, bamboo shoots and baby corn and bring to a simmer.

Now it is time to season your curry. Remember: bland curry is counter-revolutionary. The trick with Thai curry is to balance the flavors of: sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. Add the fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, lime leaf and chilies to taste, keeping in mind that the coconut milk will slightly "dampen" the flavors after a little bit of simmering. After your curry is perfectly seasoned, reduce heat and let the mixture simmer while you slice the basil. Add the basil at the final touch.

sb1

[cattygurl]

Goddamn, SB... remember to point out that you love to cook in your personal. I don't know of a good woman that doesn't find men that cook well to be incredibly sexy.

[cattygurl]

Maesri and mae ploy are both good, but nothing beats home-made curry paste for me. I'm still looking to improve on mine so any recipes will be fab!

Ellen? You got any?

[ellencho]

My recipe is basically what sb1 does. The only difference is that I don't use that much coconut milk for the sake of my health. I usually use about 1/2 a cup and then replace the rest of the liquid I need with a good asian chicken stock.

I once made my own paste for a beef rendang and was horrified by the crappiness of it. Maybe it was a bad recipe, but the keffir lime and lemon grass were too fricking strong in it. These days I use ready made pastes because I like their balance of flavors. Of course I can always add extra stuff to help boost certain flavors, but for now, I'm not much of a curry paste maker.

For Indian curries though, I make my pastes/spice mixes from scratch. Somehow they're more foolproof for me.

[Charlie]

For Japanese style curry I use those SB Golden curry bricks. I should do it right and make curry from scratch one of these days. I'm not sure if it would taste any better, but at least I can claim it was from scratch when cooking for others :wink:

For rendang, I think Yeo's has a good seasoning mix.

[MATHABA]

i never use coconut milk. chicken, potato, vegetables, lemongrass. very spicy.