massaman curry

CDC's second favourite curry.
Actually, it's my first favourite but it takes longer to make than the
above mentioned chicken curry so we get it less often. But that said it's
a great way to use up any paste left over from the above without having to have the same curry again.

Open a can of coconut milk that's been standing in the cupboard for some weeks. (I keep one specially!) DON'T shake it first, just carefully invert it, so you're openign the end that was downwards. You'll find it has settled out and the solids have settled out. Spoon these carefully into a big casserole. You'll get about half way down the can. Turn on the heat, and stir into the melting solids the paste. (Actually this should get a slightly different paste, but we've found using the red curry paste is *pretty close*).

As the mixture starts to simmer, toss in beef. I generally use a pretty
good cut of braising steak - you could use a cheaper cut if you're
prepared to let the curry simmer for longer. Cubed up to nice bite sized pieces. 400-500g

Stir in some palm sugar if you have it, else soft brown or even demerara sugar will do. 4tbs. NOTE that this will take a lot of heat out of the paste in addition to that already taken by the coconut milk. This isn't a "nuclear" curry, but you can still add more paste if you prefer a bit more zing. Suggest a taste-and-adjust about half way through the simmering time in this case. For more heat, more paste, or use crushed chillis, or some freshly chopped bird-eye chilly. (hint - very hot - don't use many - don't rub your eyes!)

Add about 4tbs of fish sauce. If you don't have it (it's fairly easy to
find in the supermarkets) then use *light* soy sauce. Hmm. I'd probably halve the quantity if using Soy.

Add about 2tbs of lime juice.

Put in the rest of the coconut milk, and about a pint of water. (Less if
your casserole seals well.)

Simmer this (and I mean simmer, all you gas ring fanatics had better get those heat diffusers out! Or use a low oven.) for about an hour, 90 mins, until the meat is tender.

Now lob in a couple of small onions cut into quite large chunks, half a
dozen small potatos (waxy ones are good - I favour Estima! - try to avoid ones which will fall apart in the sauce.) cut up into similar size lumps to the meat. Put the lid on to continue to simmer whilst the spuds soften.

With about ten minutes to go, lob in a couple of good handfuls of the
biggest peanuts you can find. We normally end up using pre-salted peanuts and that's fine but if so remember when checking your seasoning mid-cook that this will up the saltyness a little!