About the Recipe
I occasionally visit one of my Thai friends and a group of us spend a morning cooking large amounts of Thai curries. This is one of my favourites as it is not too high on the spice scale and has a lovely creamy texture from the coconut. I don't use my usual Japanese curry cubes in this recipe - I keep this curry true to its origins and use massaman curry paste - you can buy this from Asian stores and online.
Ingredients
5 boneless chicken thighs
1 medium onion
350g potatoes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp massaman curry paste
1 tin of coconut milk
a half tin of water
2 bay leaves
5 cardamon pods
50g cashew nuts
2 tbsp fish sauce
1.5 tbsp palm or brown sugar
1 tbsp of tamarind for making 2.5 tbsp of tamarind juice*
*you can also use ready made tamarind juice from asian stores if you can find it
Preparation
soak the tamarind in hot water and leave for 10 mins, (you will use the juice later)
halve & slice the onion, peel the potatoes and cut into big bite sized pieces. repeat with the chicken thigh
heat the vegetable oil with the massaman curry paste in a pan, then add 2 tbsp of thick coconut milk from the top of the tin
stir well over a medium heat until the mixture becomes aromatic & the oil begins to separate
add 1/2 the tin of coconut milk and the chicken to the pan and cook for 2 mins
add the potatoes, onion, bay leaves, cardamon pods, fish sauce, cashew nuts, sugar, the rest of the coconut milk & a half tin of water to the pan, then add 2.5 tbsp of tamarind juice, and cook for 30 mins, stirring occasionally
serve with thai jasmin rice