Name: Massaman Curry (Slow-Braised Beef Curry with Potato and Peanuts)
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 3 h 10 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 6 dried red chillies; 1 tbsp coriander seeds; 2 tsp cumin seeds; 5 cm cinnamon; 5 cloves; 3 green cardamom pods; 1 star anise; 0.25 tsp nutmeg; 1 tsp white peppercorns; 2 stalks lemongrass; 20 g galangal; 6 shallots; 8 cloves garlic; 1 tbsp shrimp paste; 800 g beef shin or chuck; 400 ml coconut cream; 400 ml coconut milk; 500 g potatoes; 2 onions; 80 g roasted peanuts; 3 tbsp tamarind paste; 3 tbsp palm sugar; 3 tbsp fish sauce; 5 cm cinnamon; 2 star anise; 2 bay leaves

Ingredients

6servings

Curry paste (if making your own)
dried red chillies · deseeded and soaked 20 minutes; they are here for colour and aroma, not heat6
coriander seeds · toasted in a dry pan1 tbsp
cumin seeds · toasted in a dry pan2 tsp
cinnamon · one stick5 cm
cloves5
green cardamom pods · toast whole, use the seeds3
star anise1
nutmeg · grated0.25 tsp
white peppercorns1 tsp
lemongrass · white part only, thinly sliced2 stalks
galangal · ginger will stand in at half the quantity20 g
shallots6
garlic8 cloves
shrimp paste · Thai kapi, or 1 tbsp anchovy sauce1 tbsp
Curry
beef shin or chuck · in 4cm pieces; pick a cut with connective tissue800 g
coconut cream · the set top of an unshaken tin — used to crack the oil out400 ml
coconut milk400 ml
potatoes · in 4cm cubes; waxy ones hold their shape500 g
onions · cut into large quarters2
roasted peanuts · unsalted, skinned80 g
tamarind paste · the sourness here is tamarind, not lime3 tbsp
palm sugar · or dark brown sugar3 tbsp
fish sauce3 tbsp
cinnamon · added whole to the braise5 cm
star anise · whole2
bay leaves2

Steps

For your own paste, toast the coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and star anise in a dry pan over a low heat until fragrant, then grind fine. Toasting dry spices is the step that separates massaman from every other Thai curry — a green curry has no such step and pounds only fresh herbs. Add the soaked chillies, lemongrass, galangal, shallots, garlic and shrimp paste and work it to a thick paste in a mortar or blender. Six tablespoons of shop-bought massaman paste will do instead.
⏲ 5 min
Put the coconut cream alone in a pan over a medium heat. After 10–15 minutes it thickens and then the oil separates and floats. Getting to that state — แตกมัน, "tak man" — is the point, and that oil is what you fry in next. Coconut milk will not do it, so use the set cream from the top of the tin.
⏲ 15 min
Fry the paste in the separated oil for 5–7 minutes. It is ready when the colour deepens and the oil breaks out again, red this time. Cut this short and the raw edge of the spices stays in the finished curry.
⏲ 7 min
Add the beef, turn it in the paste and cook 3–4 minutes. No need to brown it — the meat flavour in this curry comes from gelatine released over a long braise, not from a seared surface.
⏲ 4 min
Pour in the coconut milk and 300ml water and add the cinnamon, star anise and bay leaves whole. Once it comes up, drop the heat as low as it goes, set the lid ajar and cook 1 hour 30 minutes. A rolling boil splits the coconut and toughens the beef rather than tenderising it.
⏲ 90 min
Add the potatoes, onions and peanuts and cook another 25–30 minutes, until a fork goes into the potato. Put the potato in at the start and it disintegrates into the sauce.
⏲ 28 min
Stir in the tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce, cook 5 minutes more, then take it off the heat and taste. You are after an order: salt first, then sweet, then sour arriving last. Short on sour, add tamarind; flat, add fish sauce; sharp, add palm sugar — half a tablespoon at a time.
⏲ 5 min
Off the heat, leave it at least 20 minutes. The spice aroma spreads through the liquid and the oil rises red to the surface. Do not skim it — in a massaman that layer is the sign it is finished.
⏲ 20 min
Fish out the cinnamon, star anise and bay and serve with jasmine rice. The whole spices were never meant to be eaten.

Tips & Variations

Variations

Chicken: swap in 800g of thigh and cut the first braise to 30 minutes. Both beef and chicken are common in Thailand. Breast will not survive this cooking time.
Lamb: the combination that sits closest to the dish's Muslim origins. Use shoulder and the same timings as beef.
Vegetarian: firm tofu, shiitake and chickpeas in place of the meat, with 1 tbsp of fermented soybean paste and soy sauce standing in for the shrimp paste and fish sauce. Braise 40 minutes.
Sweet potato: used instead of potato in parts of southern Thailand. It brings more sweetness, so cut the palm sugar to 1 tbsp.
With roti: dipping roti or naan instead of serving rice is common in Thai Muslim restaurants.

Tips

Toasted dry spices are what this curry is. Cinnamon, clove, cardamom, star anise, cumin and coriander seed come from the Indian and Persian side; lemongrass, galangal and shrimp paste from the Thai side. Massaman is the hybrid that puts both in one paste. A green curry has no dry spices at all, only fresh herbs, so the two are relatives in name only (blooming spices).
It is not a hot curry. The dried chillies are there for colour and aroma and the heat stays in the background. This is among the mildest Thai curries, and making it spicy buries the spices (chilli and heat).
Crack the coconut cream first. Skip boiling the cream until the oil separates, fry the paste in ordinary oil instead, and you get less than half the aroma. Coconut milk holds too much water to break, so do not shake the tin — use the set cream on top.
Low and long. A cut with connective tissue braised for an hour and a half turns its collagen into gelatine, and that is what gives the sauce body — there is no starch in it (braising, collagen and time). Boiled hard, the meat contracts and gets tougher instead.
Potatoes go in late. From the start they will not survive 90 minutes. Waxy potatoes hold their shape.
The sourness is tamarind. Lime will give you something that tastes Thai but not something that tastes like massaman. Tamarind's blunt, deep sourness against cinnamon and clove is the whole point.
Season off the heat. Adjust until salt arrives first, then sweet, then sour. While it simmers salt reads weaker than it is, which is how people end up over-fish-saucing it (balancing flavour).
Do not skim the oil. The red film on top is the sign the paste was fried properly.
Better the next day, noticeably so even by the standards of spiced curries. Rendang improves overnight for the same reason — both are coconut and dry spices reduced over a long time, and they part company at the end, with rendang cooking its liquid away towards a fry and massaman keeping it.
Where the name comes from: 'massaman' is generally taken to derive from an old word for Muslim (Mussulman). Persian and Indian Muslim traders moved through the Ayutthaya court in the 17th century and brought the spices with them, and neither potato nor peanut is native to Thailand. It is the one Thai curry that leaves the foreign trail sitting in plain sight on its ingredient list.
Keeping it: 4 days refrigerated, 2 months frozen. Reheat gently — high heat splits the coconut. The potato drinks the sauce as it sits, so loosen it with a little water or coconut milk.

The basics behind this dish

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