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Massaman curry is believed to be one of those earliest Thai recipes of the 19th century AD. Not sure how many of you had tried this curry dish but I rarely order it (or not even once) when dining in the Thai restaurant. Most likely it seems to be an unpopular dish for me.

This coconut-based curry is usually prepared with beef, potatoes and roasted peanuts and its flavor is kind of hot and sour. You can always make this dish with your favorite meats like chicken, duck, or pork. Tofu can be used as well to make a vegetarian dish. As with most curries, you can easily pick up the Massaman curry paste at the Asian food market.

Although it’s not my favorite kind of Thai curry, it is served well with steamed white rice. Try it! Probably you might like it.

Ingredients:

1 piece of skinless chicken breast (sliced)
2 potatoes (cut into cubes)
1 onion (chopped)
3 tbsp roasted peanuts (or as preferred)
3 tbsp Massaman curry paste (Mae Ploy brand)
3 cups coconut milk
4 tbsp palm sugar
4 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp tamarind paste (or as preferred)

Cooking Method:

1. Heat up a pot with 2 tbsp cooking oil. Add in the curry paste and stir with medium heat for 2 minutes.
2. Add chicken meat and stir for 2-3 minutes.
3. Pour in the coconut milk, palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind paste. Keep stirring until everything is mixed. Bring to boil.
4. Add in potatoes, onion and roasted peanuts. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soften.
5. Dish up and serve well with steamed white rice.

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Yellow curry is another kind of Thai curry, commonly found in the Thai restaurants in Los Angeles here. Comparing with other Thai curries, yellow curry is normally creamier and richer. This is because coconut cream is being used instead of coconut milk. However, I preferred watery curry instead of a creamy one, so I used the coconut milk this time.

Potato is a must-have ingredient to be added in the yellow curry as I heart potato for life. Who doesn’t? Other than potato, I put in okra (lady’s fingers), carrot and red chili peppers as well to give it a more colorful version.

A buddy of mine asked me, how the heck do you know how to cook so many kinds of Thai curry? I just told him to follow the recipes I provided. Just cook few more times, try an error then you will know the answer. Enjoy!

I heart curry! Do you? Check these: panang curry, red curry and green curry.

Ingredients:

1 piece of skinless chicken breast (sliced)
2 potatoes (cut into small cubes)
1 carrot (sliced)
2-3 red chili peppers (sliced)
1 onion (chopped)
3-4 kaffir lime leaves
3 tbsp yellow curry paste (Mae Ploy)
2 cups coconut milk
1 cup water (Add more water if you want it to be more watery)
1 tsp sugar

Cooking Method:

1. Heat up a pot with 2 tbsp cooking oil. Add in the curry paste and stir with medium heat for 2 minutes.
2. Pour in the 1 cup coconut milk and keep stirring until the curry paste is dissolved.
3. Add in another cup coconut milk and chicken meats. Heat until boiling.
4. Add in potatoes, carrot, onion and water. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soften.
5. Add in red chili peppers, kaffir lime leaves and sugar. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
6. Dish up and serve well with steamed white rice.

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If you ever visit a Hong Kong style western café, you will know once you are seated, the waiter or waitress will serve you with a hot cup of their daily special soup. This is a common practice in most Hong Kong style cafés, in fact Hong Kong people like to drink their soup before the meal. So don’t be surprise. The two popular soups that are usually serving are either the cream of corn (something like Campbell soup) or Luo Song Tong (羅宋湯) / Russian Borscht Soup, this is what I like the most.

I love the taste of Luo Song Tong (羅宋湯) , it is a hearty tomato based vegetable soup that is is quite similar to our ABC Soup actually (in Patrick’s previous post). The main difference is the Luo Song Tong is much more intense in flavor as the soup base is cooked with beef bones or beef stew with lots of tomatoes and all kind of vegetables such as carrot, onion, potato and celery. I always want to try to make this at home. So this has been a good timing since I removed my wisdom tooth and I couldn’t eat too much of solid food, I’ve made a pot of yummy Luo Song Tong for my weeknight dinners with some greens.

Despite my love to Luo Song Tong, I actually just found the soup has been modified from the Russian Borscht soup, a hearty beetroot vegetable soup originated from Ukraine or Eastern Russia. I always couldn’t figure out why it is called “Luo Song” Soup, it is actually a translation of pronunciation for the word Russia. Please excuse my unknown. Enjoy a hearty meal.

Ingredients:

1 lb beef stews or beef bones for soup
5 tomatoes (cut into cubes)
3 carrots (cut into cubes)
3 talks celery (cut into cubes)
1 red onion (cut into cubes)
1/4 cabbage (optional)
4 garlic (crushed)
10-15 peppercorns (crushed)
1 bay leave
1 6 oz can tomato puree ( you can make your own tomato puree from scratch)
1/2 cup of beef stock
1 1/2 all purpose flour (dissolve in water)
2 tbsp ketchup (for flavor enhancement-optional)
Salt &  black pepper to taste

Serve size:  4-6 people

Cooking method:

1. Blanch beef stews or beef bones in boiling hot water, drain and rinse slightly with running cold tap water.
2. Add the beef stew or beef bones into a pot of boiling water, add the beef stock, bay leave, crushed peppercorns, garlic and half of the chopped onions into the pot. Cook for 90 minutes until the meat is tender.
3. Rinse and cut up all vegetable ingredients into cubes or bite sizes.
4. Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat, stir fry the onions until translucent. Add some tomatoes and stir fry for a while till tender. (This is to make the tomatoes more thicker and cook quicker, you can skip this step.)
5. Toss all the cut vegetables into the pot, bring to boil and turn to low simmer for 45 minutes until the vegetables become tender. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom.
6. Add the tomato purees and flour water into the pot to increase its thickness. Bring to boil, turn to low and simmer for another 15 minutes, stir occasionally.
7. Tip, add in 1 to 2 tbsp ketchup for flavor enhancement and sweetness.
8. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley or cilantro. Serve hot.

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No doubt, I love curry and grew up eating all kind of curry dishes. Curry chicken with potatoes is one of those delicate curry dishes that can be easily found in Malaysia. There are many variations of curry chicken; Chinese, Indian, Malay and Nyonya. If you are a huge fan of curry, you are not able to resist the temptation.

My mom makes good curry as she was a food hawker and I often ask her for recipes. It isn’t complicated to cook curry chicken with potatoes but you need to find the right curry powder or curry paste to give you the right taste. I mostly rely on the curry powder or instant curry paste which I brought from Malaysia but you still able to find the curry powder or instant curry paste easily in the Asian food markets.

I am trying to learn all kind of curry recipes nowadays. There are many versions of curry chicken, depending on the ingredients used in it. Today I’ve made my favorite curry chicken with potatoes to appease my thirst. It is always good to have curry especially it goes so well with steamed rice. Plus the potatoes make it more extraordinary.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup curry powder
3 peeled potatoes (quarterly cut)
2 chicken leg quarters – 2 drumsticks and 4 thighs (cut into pieces)
1 chicken breast (cut into pieces)
3 shallots (peeled and sliced thinly)
2 lemongrasses (only white bottom part, pounded)
2 star anises
1 cinnamon stick
Some curry leaves (optional)
1/2 can coconut milk
4 cups water (use less water for thicker curry sauce or more for lighter curry sauce)

Cooking Method:

1. Heat up a deep pot with 3 tbsp of oil. Sauté the shallots until fragrant.
2. Add the lemongrass, star anises, cinnamon stick and curry leaves (optional) and sauté until fragrant.
3. Add the chicken meat and stir until cooked.
4. Add the curry powder, coconut milk, water and potato. Stir well for 2-3 minutes. Note: Make sure the water is enough to cover the ingredients in the pot.
5. Lower the heat to medium and cover the pot and bring the curry chicken to boil. Then turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes or so until the chicken are tenderized.
6. Serve hot.

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Potato chicken is one of the common dishes I love to cook all time. I am so into this dish is because my grandma cooked it most of the times for me and my brother when we were in primary school (elementary school). This is one of the fabulous dishes I could remember that she cooked.

In Malaysia, this dish is named shuzimenji (薯仔燜雞) or helanshumenji (荷蘭薯燜雞). I absolutely have no ideas why it is being called helanshumenji (荷蘭薯燜雞). 荷蘭means Holland. Some said the potato was possibly brought to Malaysia from Holland in the earlier times.

Anyway, it is an uncomplicated but tasty recipe to be attempted. If you’re looking for something simple to cook after a long day, this is certainly the one.

Ingredients:
1 chicken drumstick (cut in chunks)
1 chicken breast (cut into pieces)
3-4 potatoes (quarterly cut)
1 big onion (sliced into medium size)
1 shallot (minced)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup water

For marinating:
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (绍兴酒)

Cooking method:

1. Marinate the chicken meats for 30 minutes before cooking.
2. Heat up the pan or pot with 2 tbsp of oil. Add in the big onion and shallot and sauté until fragrant.
3. Add the chicken meats and stir fry well until cooked.
4. Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Stir well.
5. Add potatoes and water. Stir well for 2-3 minutes.
6. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
7. Dish up. Note: Make sure the potatoes are softened before dish up. Otherwise simmer for a while more.

Serves hot.