I made this a week or so ago and finally catching up as I didn’t know what to write about this this.

Let me explain. With a lot going on I’ve not been focused enough to blog my thoughts, plus who cares about my thoughts…right? Thai food fascinates me. I do think though with Thai food you have to be in the mood. The smell of ingredients in their raw state at the time can put you off, mainly the fish sauce or fish paste. You have to expect the strong smell of fish can overwhelm the kitchen and quite easily put you off the food. I do like to taste every ingredient in its raw form….so yes I’ve tasted fish paste raw…it certainly opens your eyes but it helps you get used to cooking with it. Another issue I have is…well not me…my family isn’t too keen on anything that contains too much coconut. As you know if you cook Thai curries or dishes you use coconut milk. This is again one of the many reasons we don’t eat Thai food. We have such an amazing Thai restaurant not that far from us in Warwick called The Art Kitchen. I’ve had the pleasure of eating there once and it blew me away. The flavours were mind blowing and this is one of the dishes I ate back then.

Most of the work is done beforehand doing the paste which is my previous post so please read that for the method and process.

Ingredients- 2 tbsp rapeseed oil, 600g of beef, 1 batch of pre-made panang paste, 1 tbsp of palm sugar, 400ml tin of thick coconut milk, what ever vegetables you want to add – I used mangetout, mini corns and mushrooms which all needed using, kafir lime leaves, 2 tbsp of fish sauce.

Method- heat the rapeseed oil. When hot add the beef and brown in small batches. Too much in the pan at once will lower the oil temperature and boil the steak which is not what you want.

Once you’ve browned the meat add it all back to your wok along with the pre-made paste.

Add the sugar then mix well.

At this point you will smell the rawness of the paste. Add the coconut milk, give it a good stir then leave to simmer for 5 minutes.

Once the curry has come together add your chosen vegetables. Allow these to cook for another 5 minutes.

Add your fish sauce, give it a good stir then serve with chopped lime leaves. The whole dish took between 15/20 minutes. If you put your rice on at the same time as you first start to heat the oil then at will all come together at the same time. The rice should be cooked by the time you add your coconut milk so the rice (Jasmine rice) can be allowed to sit and steam in the pan.

If you’ve taken the trouble to read my post thanks. At times I don’t know if my ramblings are pointless ? I shall keep doing them until the end of the year then we will have to see what happens.

The recipe and credit goes to Dan Toombs. Thanks Dan for inspiring me to keep doing this!