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A classic, much loved Thai curry, and a very quick one to cook: panang curry! Instead of being soupy like most other Thai curries, this one is more of a saucy curry with a thick, rich, luscious, flavourful sauce. In this video I also give you a recipe for how to make a "semi-homemade" panang curry paste using store-bought red curry paste as a base.
About Panang Curry:
Panang curry is kind of an interesting dish, because it's quite unique compared to other Thai curries. You may have noticed that most dishes that are classified as "curry" of "gaeng" in Thai cuisine are rather soupy. Lots of sauce, thin and runny sauce, some are even water-based and eat very much like brothy soups like this sour curry or this breast milk boosting curry. (If you have my cookbook, I talk about what is curry in there.)
Panang, on the other hand, might be closer to what you imagine when you think of the word "curry"— a thicker, richer sauce, and just enough of it to coat all the stuff and pool a little. We even have a special word for this amount of liquid in a dish, it's called "kluk klik". Panang is also unique in that it is all meat—it never has any vegetables added to it. The meat is always thinly sliced, and at most you'll get some red peppers thrown in as garnish.
Flavour-wise, it is similar to a red curry with a couple of important ingredients added: coriander, cumin, and peanuts. You can check out my Thai red curry recipe to compare!
It's a great weeknight curry because it comes together so fast. The cooking technique is almost more of a stir-fry, which awesome!
How to Ensure Tender Beef
When eating a beef curry or stir-fry, my biggest pet peeve is when the meat is chewy. I hate it. No matter how delicious it is...if the meat it chewy, the dish is ruined in my books. There are a few simple keys to make sure you have tender beef without having to braise it for a long time.
- Choose a cut of beef that you would eat as a steak. The assumption being that any beef you will eat as a steak is considered "tender", at least compared to cuts you would need to stew or braise. This is a good rule of thumb for choosing stir-fry beef, which this recipe essentially is. I'm using New York strip in this video (it's a particularly fatty one, which was just a lucky pick at the store!).This does NOT mean it has to be an expensive cut, but if you're choosing the less expensive, leaner steaks, the next two points are very important.
- Slice the meat AGAINST THE GRAIN. If the meat is naturally tender (New York, ribeye, or tenderloin), it's not as big of a deal, but for cuts that are borderline chewy....like flank, or lean sirloin tip, it's very important. You want the shortest meat fibers possible because the longer it is, the harder it is to chew. Think of slicing the beef as "pre-chewing"—let the knife do the hard work for you. So pay attention to your steak, look at which direction the meat grain runs, and slice across it. See my video for an example.
- Slice meat THINLY. For 2 reasons, one is because the thinner the beef the more tender is it to chew, which is important if you're using leaner, less tender meat. The other reason is that this is a quick-cooking curry, not a long simmering one, so if the meat is thick the flavour will not have time to penetrate the inside. Using meat that is still a little frozen inside makes slicing thinly much easier.
Watch The Full Video Tutorial!
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success - and if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!
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Panang Curry Beef แพนงเนื้อ
- Yield: 2-3 servings
Ingredients
- 300g beef, very thinly sliced against the grain (see notes about tender beef above)
- 1½ tsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp oil
- ¾ cup + ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 recipe homemade or semi-homemade panang curry paste (recipe follows)
- 10 kaffir lime leaves, 7 roughly torn, 3 finely julienned
- ~1 teaspoon fish sauce, to taste
- 1½ Tbsp palm sugar, finely chopped, packed (if using granulated sugar, use 1 teaspoon to start then taste and adjust)
- A handful mild red pepper, thinly julienned for garnish, optional
- Jasmine rice for serving
Semi-Homemade Panang Curry Paste
- 3-4 tablespoon red curry paste (see notes)
- ¾ tsp toasted cumin seeds
- 1 ½ tsp toasted coriander seeds
- 2 Tbsp roasted peanuts, unsalted (if allergic, sub another type of nuts or seeds)
- 1 tsp fermented shrimp paste (optional, only if the red curry paste doesn’t already have it)
Instructions
For the semi-homemade panang curry paste:
- Grind the cumin and coriander seeds until very fine using a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder.
- Add roasted peanuts and grind until fine.
- Mix the red curry paste and shrimp paste into the ground spice mixture.
For the Curry
- Add 1½ teaspoon fish sauce and oil to beef and massage it in with your hands, separating the pieces of beef that are stuck together as you mix.
- In a saute pan or a wok over medium high heat, reduce ¾ cup coconut milk until thickened and creamy.
- Stir in curry paste and reduce the heat to medium low. Cook the paste for a few minutes, stirring constantly, until coconut oil separates away from the paste. If the paste sticks to the pan, you can deglaze with a bit of the remaining coconut milk.
- Add palm sugar and torn kaffir lime leaves and cook for a minute or so until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add beef and quickly toss it with the curry paste, separating the pieces of beef as much as you can. Once the beef is about 50% cooked, add the remaining coconut milk and stir for 30 more seconds or just until the beef is fully cooked. If it looks too dry, you can add a splash of water at this point.
- Stir in red peppers, if using, and turn off the heat.
- Taste and adjust seasoning with more fish sauce and/or sugar as needed.
- Garnish with julienned kaffir lime leaves and more red peppers as desired.
- Serve with jasmine rice, enjoy!
Notes
You can use any curry paste brand that you like. In this video I used Maesri brand. Watch this video for my tips on choosing a curry paste.
HJ
Exceptional recipe. We added more veggies - onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms. wonderful taste and just the right amount of spices
★★★★★
Thomas
Made this curry with Mae Ploy Red Curry paste twice and although it came out really tasty, it was also really spicy. Any tips on how to lose some heat without losing the taste?
Thanks!
★★★★★
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hi Thomas, glad it came out tasty! So unfortunately the only way to reduce heat is for you to use less paste, but that obviously means you will lose flavour. The only other option here is for you to explore another brand that is less spicy and is more tolerable for you. Try Aroy D, Nam Jai or Maesri and see how they go!
Nic Neufeld
Hello, I'm making this tomorrow night. I do have a question...sometimes with canned coconut milk it stratified into an almost solid section with a liquid, more translucent section. I assume the solid bit is more fatty, so if you were using it in a curry, you'd want to start out with the whiter/solid part of the coconut milk to fry the paste in, then use the thinner, more watery part later, so you have more of the oily part up front for frying? Or is it better to mix it all up and evenly divide?
Pailin Chongchitnant
Hi! You can just scoop up the solid bit and use that for the frying, and use the thinner part for the rest, no need to mix it all up. However, if you're not going to use the whole can, I suggest mixing it all up (applying heat will help it mix better) otherwise the stuff leftover is going to be too thin and not useful for other recipes.
Brent Jopko
I made this curry with only vegetables using the home made paste from Pai's recipe.
This dish was amazing! So delicious and full of flavour, it's definitely a keeper.
My wife and I are living in Thailand so thankfully I am able to get all the correct ingredients, some fresh from the garden.
Thank you Pai, great recipes on your site, this is the third one I have tried and all have been delicious.
★★★★★
Rob Mavis
Your Panang Curry is great. I'm having a Thai food party night, will it keep overnight
Rob Mavis
I’ll answer my own post. The Panang Beef kept beautifully. We had the Thai feast: Panang beef, Sweet Chili Atlantic cod, Green Curry chicken, Tom Kha Gai soup, Black Pepper Beef stir fry, Basil stir fry sauce over beef and fish, and 5 minute Pad Thai. All a success. Most prepared partially the day before. Served is less that an hour. All Thai and all Pai’s creations. Except for a Korean radish salad I got from Maangchi. Thanks Pai!
Raven
This dish is my husbands favorite and every time he goes to his favorite Thai restaurant he asks for native heat. Is this recipe considered ‘native’ hot? Haha apparently Grandma ( it’s a family owned restaurant he goes to and the grandma does all the cooking) has three types of heat— Mild, Spicy and Native. Thank you!
Jennifer
I can’t find the lime leaves anywhere local? Any ideas? Can I order online maybe?
Jeanette
This proved to be an absolutely fantastic receipe. I used my own Thai red curry paste for the Panang curry paste. It was a great meal for two people. I used a little less meat and coconut milk. I also had cauliflower rice instead of jasmine rice.
Thank you for a wonderful receipe and video.
★★★★★
Adam The HTK Minion
Great to hear!! 🙂
Brian
Excellent recipe. I made it with flank steak for three of us, the portion size was perfect, and everyone loved it. It’s a keeper!
★★★★★
Chloe
Is Mae Ploy 'Red Chili Paste' red curry? That's what I used and it came great! Even my 6 yr old ate some! I also have some Maesri canned curry pastes, Kaeng Par and Prik Khing, just wondering if I made the right curry paste choice?
Thank you! I love the channel 😀
Chloe
★★★★★
Richard
Pai.... Marry Me! lol !!! This is wonderful as I wanted to venture into penang style curry. Thanks for your tutorial!
Ian
Made this with pork and it was fantastic.
★★★★★
AJ Ronaldo
Made this numerous times without fail. Very easy to follow-recipe 🤤
★★★★★
Natalie
Perfect and easy recipe. Made it with chicken (cooked a tiny bit longer to make sure it’s done). Added fried julienned eggplant w garlic. Garnished with cilantro instead lime leaf that wasn’t available. And served it with Thai cucumber salad. It was a dream!
★★★★★
John
Beautifully explained. Tried it yesterday and everyone loved it. Thanks Pailin!
★★★★★
Stephen Chan
I love curry, and I love satay, Panang is just the mix of the two to me, awesome!
★★★★★