Southern Thailand, with its large population of Muslims, rarely has pork on the menu. This slightly sweet coconut curry, however, does use pork, along with potatoes, lychee and pineapple. It was my favourite dish of all the Thai eating classes, and that was in with some tough competition. In Thai it is called ‘Gaeng Masaaman Moo’. The southern Thai menu at the Talay Thai .
Thai Masaaman Yellow Coconut Curry
Wear an apron, the coconut milk splatters!
Yield: 4 servings
- ~ 500 grams/ 1 lb boneless pork – cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 tin (20 fl oz) Mae Ploy coconut milk
open a can of coconut milk and scoop the thick coconut cream from the top and set aside
- 1 small tin Arroy-D coconut milk
- 1/2 tin 4 fl oz. yellow (Muslim) curry paste (also called Massaman curry paste)
use about half a tin of Thai yellow curry paste and freeze the remainder wrapped in saran wrap
- 1 medium potato – cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 small onion (or 12 peeled white pearl onions)
- 3 Tbsp. raw peanuts – skinned
peeled raw peanuts for Thai curry
- 1 teaspoon whole cardamon pods
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1/2 tin pineapple chunks and juice
- 6 pitted lychees cut in half plus 1/4 cup of the lychee syrup
a half tin of lychees is added to the curry
- 3 Tbsp. tamarind paste mixed with a small amount of water – some brands still have the seeds left in the paste and these should be removed
tamarind paste – this one is without the seeds
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce)
- red Thai chile – sliced & seeded (or a sprinkle of cayenne to taste)
Open the coconut milk and scoop the thick coconut cream from the top and set aside. Put the meat and remaining coconut liquid (~1 cup) into a deep pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the meat & coconut milk, leaving ~4 Tbsp. in the pan.
heat the first half of the coconut milk until the fat starts to separate
Stir in the yellow curry paste, and cook at fairly high temperature until the paste gives off a strong curry fragrance (or until lazy husband, lounging on the couch in the living room, says, “something smells good honey…”)
adding the second half of the coconut milk to the Thai yellow curry
Return the meat to the pan, mix well and fry for a further 3-4 mins. Pour the remainder of the coconut milk back in, and simmer for a further 10 minutes until the oil separates and forms a layer on the surface.
Add the potato, onion, peanuts, cardamon, lemon juice, tamarind water, nam pla, lychee, pineapple and the reserved thick coconut milk. Simmer for a further 30 mins. or until the meat and vegetables are cooked. Taste and adjust the seasoning with nam pla, lemon juice or tamarind as necessary. A few minutes before serving, sprinkle cayenne to taste.
