As the weather becomes nicer I start to really resent making dishes that take hours. I type this after having the last two and a half hours of my life cooking/cleaning. It makes me positively nostalgic for quicker, more flavorful dishes like this Thai Red Curry Beef made with Mae Ploy Curry Paste. Mae Ploy is a Thai brand which sells curry pastes ( on amazon!) that are bigger on flavor than insipid grocery store ones. By the time I am done 'fixing' those I often feel that I may as well have made the paste myself! But that runs counter to my whole wanting to spend less time cooking thing. That said, when I first used this paste I found it unpleasantly punchy. However, with some tweaking I have found ratios that work well for me.
Thai food for me is simultaneously humbling and inspiring. The transformation of fairly simple ingredients into something so surprisingly complex seems magical. I also really enjoy that Thai cuisine seems to display a greater awareness of how to treat ingredients. The peppers in a curry should be crunchy not tender, the beef or shrimp cooked just so. What many of us have learnt in the last decade Thai cuisine has known all along.
I aim to be one of those fancy pants people who can whip up a delish Thai meal in no time, but for now I am stolidly building up my repertoire of some basics. This Thai Crunch Salad w Peanut Dressing, the Thai Noodle Salad, and the Thai Chicken Sliders are my current go tos. What about you? What are some of your favourite Thai recipes - do share!
- ½-1 lb beef tenderloin
- 2 tbsp mae ploy red curry paste
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 4-6 lime leaves optional, see note
- One red onion
- One red pepper
- Handful of chopped peanuts
- 8-10 basil leaves
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- Chop your red pepper and onion into similar similar sized strips or cubes. I cut mine into 1cm cubes. Set aside
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- Thinly slice the beef tenderloin against the grain
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- Warm a skillet and add a tbsp. of oil
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- Add your red curry paste and stir fry for at least two minutes – red curry paste can be unpleasant if it retains its rawness. The color will darken, the smells will heighten. Embrace it
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- Gently open your can of coconut milk and skim the ‘cream’ off the top with a spoon and add it to the skillet
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- Cook for another 3 mintues, it will be well combined and the oil will start to separate a little
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- Add your veggies, lime leaves, and the beef strips and cook for 5-7 minutes. If you overcook the meat it will become tough so pull it out at 5 and gently press with the side of a fork to test for donenessl
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- Squeeze in a little lime juice, adjust the consistency with water if needed and add the basil.
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- Serve over rice and scattered with chopped peanuts.
The trick with a red curry is to cook off the rawness of the paste early and then cook the protein + veg until just done. Thinly sliced beef (or for more tenderness veal) is a must. If your pieces are too thick then add the veggies a little later
Yummm! Definitely trying this !
My go to super quick and yummy Thai recipe has been this for ages - http://thewoksoflife.com/2016/06/thai-basil-chicken-pad-krapow/
that sounds yummy and easy - thanks for sharing this! also should you see mae ploy pastes anywhere i have heard that their panang one is absolutely awesome
So I've never had thai food before! I'm so curious, and your amazing and growing collection of thai recipes is giving me the itch to give it a shot!
um. what?
Looks yummy. Gonna give it a try soon. I didnt totally get what it meant by skimming the cream off the cocount milk; do we just put the cream we get by skimming it out or do we still put the whole can of coconut milk in after skimming off the cream?
Hi Ayesha! So glad to hear that you'll be trying this. In terms of the coconut cream, if you open a can of coconut milk without shaking it and spoon a little out then you'll notice that the richer part of the coconut milk (i.e. the cream is at the top) and the more liquid portion is at the bottom. You just stir fry the top, if for some reason it's one homogenous liquid don't worry about it and just put a splash in the first time and the rest later!
Hello! Thanks to your recipe, I was finally able to use the red paste and make it edible. I still get a cardboard taste from the red paste and I keep having to add sugar but it's still there. Any advice? Thank you so much!
Hmmm ok so I find that sauteeing it off really well early on really helps as does the fish sauce. Also the brand of coconut milk seems to impact final taste too so I would play around there as well!