(light music)
- Sawaddee Ka.
Welcome to Hot Thai Kitchen.
Today I am making one of the most popular,
the most well known Thai dishes in the world.
I am making massaman curry.
So a few years ago I made a chicken version
of massaman, a massaman gai.
Today I am making massaman neua, or massaman beef.
Now it does require a bit of a different technique,
now that we're using beef,
but if you love a good beef stew,
you are gonna love this one.
So, let's get started.
Let's look at the beef.
So I am using beef short ribs today,
which I absolutely love for braises and stews.
So tender and flavorful.
When you buy short ribs at the store
you can choose to have bones in or boneless.
I like to choose the bones in one,
because I wanna throw the bones into the curry as well,
because it gives the broth a much nicer flavor.
However, what you can do is remove the bones
from the meat altogether,
so that when you serve it, it's easier to eat.
The bones will probably fall off anyway,
because the meat will become so tender,
but this way it's a cleaner separation, okay?
So I have gone ahead and removed all of the bones,
so I get nice cubes of short ribs, like this.
Mm.
So now I'm gonna start by searing.
Now, searing meat before adding it to a curry or stew
is actually not a very Thai thing to do.
We don't generally do that.
But, I know that searing creates browning,
which creates flavor, so it's a flavor opportunity
I would like to take.
Yeah.
And you can sear it on two sides,
three sides, four sides.
However many sides you've got the patience for.
So I am done with that,
but look at this beautiful browning.
Look at that.
That is what you are going for.
It's nice and brown.
It's got a crust on it.
Like a good steak, you know?
Look at my beautifully seared meat.
Now I'm not sure why I removed
that second batch out of the pot,
because I'm gonna need to put them all back in.
So now what I'm gonna do is
oh I'm gonna throw in the bones
that I removed in as well,
because the bones will give the broth some nice flavor.
These are big bones.
Cover this with some water.
And to this I'm gonna add also some coconut milk.
Hang with me here.
You might be slightly confused.
I'm gonna add to this now
about one tablespoon of my, the curry paste
that I just made.
Now if you missed this video, this curry paste video,
I'll put the link right in the corner here.
How you can make this from scratch.
But, you can also just get store-bought paste,
and pick it up from here as well.
So it depends how much of a DIY you want this to be.
Now I'm going to let this beef simmer and braise
for two hours, until it's basically fork tender.
This is actually not the curry, okay?
We're gonna make the curry separate
and move this beef into that curry.
And the reason is because I find
that if you braise the beef directly in the curry,
the beef will release a lot goo and gunk,
and it just makes the curry not as pretty.
So a lot of Thai people will then
braise the beef separately.
I like to add a little bit of curry paste in here as well,
so the beef, while it's braising,
has time to absorb some of that flavor.
And yes, this broth will be really good afterwards,
and we will use some of it.
We just don't want all the gunk and goo
that comes up, you know?
So it has been two hours.
The beef is now super fork tender, I just checked.
But, check this out.
This is the gunk and the goo I was talking about, right?
All this yucky stuff.
You do not want that ending up
in your final curry, and this is why
we go through the trouble.
And, I'm gonna switch pot.
So I'm gonna start out by reducing some coconut milk,
so that we can saute the curry paste in it.
So I'll bring that to a boil,
and let that reduce, okay?
Alright, so now it's reduced.
It's not broken just yet, but that's okay.
I'm gonna just add my curry paste right now.
And then I'll let the coconut milk break
with the curry paste.
And if you don't know what I mean by break,
that means you haven't seen my other curry episodes.
That basically means the coconut oil separates
from the coconut milk,
and that happens when you reduce
the coconut milk for a period of time.
And what that does is, the oil becomes
the fat that sautes all the herbs and spices
in the curry paste.
So now, what you'll start to notice,
is you see oil sizzling out
of the edges of the curry paste.
See that, all that sizzling?
That's how you know the oil has now finally separated
from the coconut milk itself.
And I'm gonna add the rest of my coconut milk in here.
Oh yes.
Alright, so now, you add the beef back in.
Ah, look at all the super tender- ah!
Super tender meat.
There you go.
Oh yes.
So nice bright beautiful curry.
It needs a little bit of liquid still.
This is too thick, because I'm still gonna
add potatoes and onions.
This is where this broth comes in.
So I'm gonna add some of this broth.
Just enough so I get the volume that I need.
But first I don't want any of this goo, right?
So I'm gonna just skim this off real quick.
A ha.
Found more meat.
Almost missed that one.
Okay, so now it's relatively clean.
It doesn't have to be spotless.
Just enough so you can get some nice bone broth
into this curry.
Very nice.
Well let's start with that.
And now I'm gonna add potatoes and onions.
Now in my massaman chicken episode,
I used regular potatoes.
But, sweet potato is actually also done,
and really quite nice.
Especially when it's massaman beef,
and it's a richer, heavier dish.
I think it goes really well
with the denser, creamier, sweet potato.
Okay, let's see how much more onion
I can force into this.
(laughs)
And yes, I want the onions to cook down
until it's nice and sweet.
I feel like this size pot
is the perfect pot for everything that I do.
I always fill it up all the way to the rim.
Okay, so I'm gonna bring this back to a simmer.
And the potatoes need another 10 to 15 minutes only,
so we're just gonna cook now until the potatoes are done.
And the- oh!
Seasoning, of course.
We haven't put fish sauce in this thing yet.
Um, where is it?
There you go, right here.
So some fish sauce.
And massaman always has a hint of sweetness in it,
so I'm gonna add also some palm sugar.
And then to balance that richness and sweetness,
you want some subtle, subtle tartness in there,
so tamarind is the perfect thing for that.
Okay.
(laughs)
And I just made it.
Okay, so maybe this is a little too much.
But now I just have to let it simmer gently.
You don't want this boiling,
because then if it's boiling, boiling,
the sweet potato might fall apart
in the vigorous boiling.
So just a gentle simmer.
Now, what you're looking for,
is for the potato to be fork tender.
And you simply just fork the potato,
and if it goes in easy, you are ready to eat.
So one last ingredient I'm gonna add
is roasted peanuts.
So peanuts you can add actually either before
or after, depending on whether you want the peanuts
to become crunchy, not become crunchy,
to stay crunchy, or if you want them
to sort of soften and blend into the curry.
I actually like to put them in
with the potatoes, but quite honestly I forgot.
So, here they are.
They're going in crunchy, which is okay.
Oh yes.
Some potato and onion.
Oh yeah.
(light music)
Ah, look at that.
Look how easily it just falls apart.
That's exactly what you want.
And with the short ribs, the benefit is
it's tender but it's not dry,
because it's so, there's a lot of marbling in the meat.
If you get a stew meat that doesn't have a lot of marbling,
that's lean, you'll get tender yet dry and chewy.
It'll fall apart, but it'll be tough.
I think we've all had that kind of beef stew.
So this is the kind of dish you wanna do
in advance if you can, so you can let it sit.
Allow the flavors to really penetrate the potatoes.
Everything will mingle and marry.
Oh, it'll be so good tomorrow too.
Mm.
There is a reason why this dish
was voted as the most delicious food in the world
by CNN a few years ago.
The flavors are so complex.
It's rich.
It's sweet.
Full of warm spices you can really taste.
It's like a symphony.
A symphony of aroma and flavor,
and the beef is soft, and tender,
and the sweet potato is super creamy,
and then I crunch into the peanut.
This is an absolute must try.
And it takes time, but it's really super easy.
You can kind of just let it go, right?
So the recipe as always will be on HotThaiKitchen.com.
When you make it, definitely send me a photo
on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
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and I will see you next time,
for your next delicious Thai meal.
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