Sometimes also spelt as Panaeng Curry this is one of my favourite dishes. Actually to my mind the correct spelling of the dish should be "Panaeng" but Google thinks otherwise! It's sometimes stated that this dish originates from the Malaysian island of Penang. I don't buy that at all but it's a fight I will leave to others!
I'm cooking this with beef. I think that this is a dish that benefits from slower cooking, so although it can be cooked quickly using rump steak I prefer to use braising steak or similar. This will produce a dish where the melting texture of the slow cooked beef and the richness of the sauce is a heavenly combination! I'm garnishing it with some kaffir lime leafand some mild red chillies. For around 500g of beef you need 1 pouch of Panang paste and 1 can of coconut milk. The pastes are complete but it is always a good idea to have a little lime juice to hand to adjust sweetness, if needed, to your personal taste at the end of cooking. You also adjust saltiness by adding a little more fish sauce or salt if required. I’m often asked about using a slow cooker for Thai curries, any recipe using coconut milk in a slow cooker has to be adapted so please read this article here first. Slow cooker curry.
Make sure you’re using the “right” type of coconut milk as it will make or break this or any other coconut based curry. Quick guide here,Coconut Milk Summary or if you would like to see the difference between different brands of coconut milk the full article is here; Cooking Thai Curry with Coconut Milk. Just use half a can to start with, if it has separated in the can to a thick part at the top of the can then use the top part. You can add the remaining coconut liquid later depending on how thick you want your curry to be. The "traditional" method of heating the milk until it separates from it's oil and using it to cook the paste is not something I recommend as can be be hard to achieve consistent results with canned coconut milk.
Add the paste to the pan and heat for a minute or two until it starts to cook.
Add half the coconut milk, stir through until it starts to bubble.
Add the meat and heat while stirring.
Add the rest of the coconut milk ensuring the meat is just covered, add water if needed. Cover pan with a tight fitting lid. You can continue to cook this on the hob or transfer to the oven at 160C. If cooking on the hob use a low heat, checking and stirring from time to time to prevent it sticking, add water if need be. Cooking time will depend on the cut of meat, about 90 mins for braising steak. It should be tender, almost falling apart. If the coconut milk has released too much oil for your taste then just scoop some from the top.
Apart from serving it as a "normal" Thai curry in the top picture, this is a popular way of serving it in our house, usually while watching a football game or movie. Tastes great in a baguette or grilled sourdough bread! The origins of Panang curry suggest anyway that it was originally a very dry curry, most likely cooked as grilled meats over charcoal, so maybe this is not a too outrageous way to eat a Panang curry, tastes great and that, for me anyway, is reason enough:-) Enjoy!
Enjoy!
If you like this recipe please click the star rating or add a comment below! Kop Khun Kha, Nitsa.x
Panang curry, also spelled Panaeng, is one of those curries that makes me want to cry when I read online recipes of how to make the paste or read the ingredients on a jar of paste. So often it is treated as a red curry with the addition of peanut butter. The list of crimes committed against this curry paste is only surpassed by the crimes against Thai green curry paste. It’s a complex curry with a complex taste. And if you ever see it offered as a paste not containing nuts you should take to your heels as the nuttiness of it is an essential part of the curry paste. That’s it, my rant is over so let’s get cooking!
Put the curry paste in the pan and heat for a minute or two until it starts to bubble.
Add half a can of coconut milk to the pan and stir through and continue to heat.
Add the meat to the pan whilst stirring.
Empty the the remaining coconut milk into the pan ensuring the meat is covered, bring to a simmer, and cover the pan.
Cooking times depend on your choice of meat so refer to the notes at the bottom.
Recipe Note
This can be cooked with rump or bavette steak which would take about 10 to 15 minutes. Or it could be cooked with braising steak or a similar cut which could take about 90 minutes. If you want to use a slow cooker for this recipe then please check out this link.
If cooking with the tougher cuts of meat it can also be transferred to the oven and cooked at 160°C/Gas mark 3. If using the oven method make sure you have a tight-fitting lid. If you wish you can scoop off any excess oil before serving. If cooking for a long time on the hob, check and stir from time to time to make sure the sauce does not burn, and add water if necessary.
Taste and adjust seasoning before serving. Serve with Thai Jasmine rice.
As always using the “right” type of coconut milk is a game-changer. See here.
Magic at its very best.I love Thai food and I love cooking but it’s difficult and expensive to get the ingredients to do it correctly and not do one of the easier recipes for curry paste. I don’t have to anymore as these pastes do it for me, its not that they are simply better than any others you can buy, but also way better than most of us can make and cut out hours of shopping and prepping. Really impressed, as were my guests.
Roy
November 28, 2022
First time using this mix and just as good as all the others tried so far.
Before discovering MyThaiCurry pastes my ‘go to’ recipe for a delicious coconut/peanut beef curry was called ‘Rama Bathing’ from a 1980s paperback titled ‘A Taste of Thailand’ by David Scott & Kristiaan Inwood. The Panang mix produces a very similar result, with the added treat of subtle Thai basil, nutmeg & kaffir lime overtones.
I made it with chicken instead of beef, added sliced bamboo shoots and garnished it with chillis, kaffir lime leaves and chopped roast peanuts. Served with black Thai rice it was spot on, with amazing flavour and just the right amount of heat.
Dee
March 20, 2022
Just made this with beef it was amazing so flavoursome, thank you for the magical paste and fab recipe!
Herdís D Baldvinsdottir
August 07, 2021
I made chicken Panang two days ago. It was amazingly tasty thanks to Nitsa´s paste. Tonight I will cook crying tiger beef, can´t wait :) I will definetly become a regular customer. Thank you Nitsa.
Wayne Lodwig
May 07, 2021
First delivery this week and made chicken Panang. I must admit the result was astonishing. A stunning curry taken to another level by Nitsa’s Panang paste. I have already placed another order based on the taste, quality and level of service. So looking forward to making many more over the coming weeks – thank you so much
My first confession is that that I never thought I would be sitting here writing a recipe for a Thai Curry pie, but times change and we change with them or stagnate. My interest was sparked on my first trip back to Bangkok after the pandemic, chicken curry puffs have long been a popular Thai snack but savoury pies, usually steak and kidney, were very much something that was restricted to the Bangkok expat pub scene. All that had changed, bake shops were springing up outside the traditional to...
I firmly believe that Khao Soi should be ranked as one of the world's great dishes. You can call it a curry or you can call it a noodle soup and it is both of those with more on top, literally on top! A broth of aromatic curry paste and orange-tinged coconut milk with tender chicken falling apart for you, boiled noodles lurking underneath and becoming coated with fragrant oil as they break the surface. Crispy noodles on top that you can manipulate and dunk into the sauce, make this dish..
This is a totally delicious way to serve roast chicken as well as being very simple to prepare. Cooking a whole chicken this way is practised in various forms throughout Asia, sometimes pot roasted, sometimes over hot coals and with many different curry pastes. Most often cooked in the home, rather than restaurants, which is most likely the reason why many Westerners are not familiar with the dish. Well, now is the time to change that and I promise you that you won't regret it! And of course ...
Give this a try if, like me, you can't be bothered to make your own paste and aren't keen on the disappointing (and overly garlicky, in my view) supermarket pastes. So simple to throw together a really tasty curry. Spice level is about right for me - a nice kick without being overwhelming. As another reviewer said, do read the blog on coconut milk as it really does make a difference between a creamy curry and a dubious tasting soup :-)
Leah James
June 02, 2023
Magic at its very best.I love Thai food and I love cooking but it’s difficult and expensive to get the ingredients to do it correctly and not do one of the easier recipes for curry paste. I don’t have to anymore as these pastes do it for me, its not that they are simply better than any others you can buy, but also way better than most of us can make and cut out hours of shopping and prepping. Really impressed, as were my guests.