Recipes

Panang Beef Curry

แกงพะแนงเนื้อ — Kaeng Phanaeng Nuea

Creamy coconut. Tender beef. Big Thai flavor. One pan. What's not to love?

Panang Beef Curry
Prep
15 min
Cook
15 min
Serves
4
Heat
medium

Panang beef curry is the curry you make when you want something that tastes like you spent half the afternoon cooking—but you absolutely did not.

It's thick, creamy and unapologetically rich, with tender slices of beef coated in coconut milk, Panang curry paste, Thai basil, makrut lime and just enough sweetness to bring everything together.

Unlike some Thai curries that have a thinner, soupier sauce, Panang likes to keep things tight. The sauce should be rich enough to cling to the beef and absolutely demand a pile of steaming jasmine rice nearby.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Look closely at the steak. You'll see lines running through the meat. Those are the muscle fibers. Slice ACROSS those lines into very thin strips. That's cutting against the grain. It shortens the muscle fibers and helps keep your beef tender. Toss the sliced beef with 2–4 teaspoons of light soy sauce and let it sit while you prepare everything else. Don't drown it. We're seasoning beef, not baptizing it.
  2. Thai cooking can move quickly once things start sizzling. This is not the moment to discover your basil is still buried behind three bottles of salad dressing. Pull the leaves from your Thai basil. Take 4 makrut lime leaves, remove the tough center ribs and tear the leaves into smaller pieces. Take the remaining 2 leaves and slice them into extremely thin ribbons. Save those pretty little ribbons for the end. Slice the chilies. Remove the pea eggplants from their stems and rinse them. Get everything within reach. Now we cook.
  3. Pour 2 cups of coconut milk into a large wok or skillet. Heat it over medium to medium-high heat. Let the coconut milk cook down, stirring occasionally, until it becomes noticeably thicker and richer. Depending on your coconut milk, you may notice some coconut oil beginning to separate. Excellent. That's flavor territory.
  4. Add 4 tablespoons Panang curry paste. Stir it thoroughly into the concentrated coconut milk. Cook for several minutes until the mixture becomes intensely fragrant. You aren't simply warming curry paste. You're allowing the coconut fat to pull flavor from all those chilies, spices and aromatics. Your kitchen should now smell incredible. Someone from another room may appear and ask: "What are you making?" Do not give them a sample. They haven't earned it yet.
  5. Add your sliced beef. Toss it through the curry mixture until every piece is thoroughly coated. Cook until the beef is approaching doneness but isn't completely finished. Remember: There's still cooking ahead. Overcook thinly sliced beef now and you'll eventually be serving expensive rubber bands. Nobody asked for that.
  6. Pour in the remaining 2 cups coconut milk. Add: 1 cup pea eggplants, 4 tablespoons coconut sugar, sliced green chilies, torn makrut lime leaves. Stir everything together. Bring the curry to a gentle simmer. Let the sugar dissolve completely and allow the sauce to become creamy, glossy and rich. This is the point where repeatedly "checking the sauce" with a spoon becomes suspiciously similar to eating dinner before dinner. We support you.
  7. STOP. Taste the curry. This matters. Different Panang curry pastes contain different amounts of salt. If you blindly dump 4 teaspoons of fish sauce into an already salty curry, you're going to have regrets. Add fish sauce gradually. Taste. Add a little more. Taste again. You're looking for balance: Rich. Salty. Sweet. Spicy. Fragrant. Needs more savory depth? Fish sauce. Needs sweetness? Coconut sugar. Too thick? Splash of water or coconut milk. Too mild? Chili. Perfect? STOP MESSING WITH IT. Knowing when to stop is also a cooking skill.
  8. Once the beef is cooked and the sauce tastes right, turn off the heat. Add the 2 cups Thai basil. Gently fold the leaves through the curry. The residual heat will wilt them without beating the life out of them. Thai basil is one of the defining aromas of this dish. Treat it with respect.

Notes

Don't cut giant chunks of beef — this isn't beef stew. Thin slices, against the grain. Your jaw will thank you.

Use full-fat coconut milk. Panang gets its luxurious texture from coconut. Now isn't the time to get stingy. Use the good stuff.

Substitutions

Can't find pea eggplant? Leave it out or substitute chopped Thai eggplant. Dinner will survive.

Can't find makrut lime leaves? Check the freezer section of an Asian grocery store. Frozen makrut lime leaves work beautifully and are worth tracking down. Don't try to replace them by dumping lime juice into the curry — different ingredient, different flavor, different job.