Authentic Thai Massaman Curry - in 20 minutes or less

Have you ever made authentic Thai curry? I have and it takes forever. Last night I had a meeting so I decided to skip the homemade and go for some authentic Masaman curry that the Thai's had prepared for me.

Now it still has to be made as this is a small can. But by following the directions on the can and adding fresh vegetables, you can have a fantastic curry in the time it takes to steam the rice.

First off, open a can of curry paste and a can of coconut milk (not the light stuff). scrape the curry paste and the fatty portion of the coconut into a large saucepan. Boil this for about 5-7 minutes. It will smell fantastic.

While that is bubbling away, chop up your vegetables. You can use whatever veggies you want. I love to put in zucchini. In this case I had onions, carrots, potatoes and sunchokes. Yes sunchokes, because we had made the Moroccan food a few weeks ago.

Add all of your veggies to the pot with a second can of coconut milk and let simmer until the potatoes are cooked through but not falling apart. Note: if you decide to use a summer squash or little Thai eggplants (I didn't have either of these and wasn't going to the grocery store) you want to add them about 5 minutes after you've added the root vegetables.


Here you can see the veggies bubbling away. Taste the sauce while it cooks, you may want to add a bit of lime juice or some fish sauce. I ended up adding a half of a lime.

I also added a chicken breast. I always cut it across the wide side. I make slices about 1/4 inch thick and then cut them into about 1-1.5 inch pieces. You could also use shrimp or fish here. I think pork and beef don't go so well with this curry.  Don't add the meat until about 3 minutes before you want to serve. It doesn't take long to cook.

Chop up cilantro and peanuts for garnish. It's going to be tasty!!!

The jasmine rice has finished cooking in the rice cooker. You know what that means, time to add the meat to the curry. Let that simmer for a few minutes and presto-voila you have a 20 minute curry.

Dish up your rice, add the curry and sauce, garnish with cilantro and chopped peanuts and put the siracha on the side for those that like it hot. MMMMMM tasty. Want a recipe? Look at the can.....