Massaman Curry
Massaman Beef Cheeks is my take on the Massaman curry – a traditional Thai Curry notable for its inclusion of whole spices. It is a deliciously rich curry of potato and beef, with a mild hum of chilli and spice throughout. It is famous for good reason! Because it is simply irresistible!
As with most delicious curries, it does take a bit of time to develop those rich flavours. This recipe is definitely more complex and takes longer. Which is why you will notice it is quite a large serving (serves 8). Because if you are spending the time and effort to make it, you might as well make a big batch, because curry always tastes better the next day! Of course, you can always halve the recipe to just serve 4, but who wouldn’t say yes to more curry?
Massaman Beef Cheeks
This is my cheeky (pun intended 😉 ) twist on the classic Massaman curry. Massaman beef cheeks swaps out the traditional large chunks of beef chuck for melt-in-your-mouth, collagenous beef cheeks. I’ve kept the beef cheeks whole, to imitate the large chunks of beef but they can be cut into smaller pieces to speed up the cook time. And of course, if you want to stick with the original beef chuck, this recipe will stick work well.
Curry Paste
The recipe includes instructions on how to make your own Massaman curry paste. But if you want to save some time, you can definitely just use store bought pre-made curry paste!
Traditionally, curry pastes are made in a mortar and pestle. But it’s a fair bit of elbow grease and takes a while! So I like to use my handy little food processor. That being said, if you want to be super authentic, the paste made from mortar and pestle is very fragrant due to the unique pounding and grinding motion that slowly releases all the flavour and aroma of the spices.
I also recommend toasting and charring the spices and aromats before hand to release the flavonoids and increase the depth of flavour you can achieve! The curry paste is usually made with water to help with the consistency. I have decided to substitute it with beef stock for more flavour! An important lesson I learnt during my time on MasterChef, is that where there is water or liquid used, swap it out for stock for another chance to pump more flavour in!
How to serve Massaman Beef Cheeks
Massaman Beef Cheeks is a curry and should ideally be served with rice. I recommend coconut rice or a bed of fresh fragrant jasmine rice. Topping it off with roasted peanuts is also a must! I like to keep it a balanced meal by serving some blanched leafy veggies as well – kai lan goes beautifully as it is strong enough to stand up to the body of the curry.
Beef Cheek Massaman Curry
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Beef Cheeks
- 1 kg potato
- 1.5 tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp palm sugar substitute with brown sugar
- 1.5 L beef stock
- 400 ml coconut cream
- 1 brown onion
- 2 tbsp oil
Spices
- 1 tsp cloves ground
- 3 tsp cumin seeds ground
- 5 cardamom pods smashed
- 3 tsp coriander seed ground
- 6 dried chillies
- 1 tsp cinnamon ground
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg ground
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 star anise
- 5 bay leaf
- 3 kaffir lime leaf
Curry Paste
- 1 shallot french/ purple
- 7 cloves garlic
- 2 stalks lemongrass
- 4 cm galangal substitute with ginger if unavailable
- 100 ml beef stock
Instructions
- Remove the tough outer bits and offcuts of the lemongrass and place into a medium pot, along with the beef cheeks, bay leaves and beef stock. Place over low heat and simmer until very tender, around 1.5-2hrs. This can be sped up by cutting up the beef cheeks or cooking in a pressure cooker for around 30-40mins at high pressure. Set aside the beef cheeks and reduce the remaining beef stock by half.
- Start the curry, approximately 1 hour after the beef cheeks have been simmering. Start by preparing the curry paste. Peel the onion and shallot and cut in half. Gently smash the garlic cloves to rupture the skins. Peel the galangal or ginger and cut in half.
- Heat up a cast iron pan over high heat until wisps of smoke appear. Quickly char the onion, shallot, garlic and galangal/ ginger and dried chillies. Be careful not to burn the chillies, move quickly as the chillies will char fast! Remove from heat and set aside to cool down. Alternatively, this can be done over fire or charcoal.
- Set a large pot over med-high heat. Add in the rest of the spices except the kaffir lime leaf and toast gently for 1-2mins until fragrant, remove from heat straightaway to avoid burning them. This can be done in a smaller pan, but I like to keep dishwashing to a minimum! Set the star anise and cinnamon stick aside, place all remaining spices into a food processor.
- Dice the onion and set aside. Remove and discard the garlic skins. Roughly chop the shallot and galangal/ginger into smaller pieces and place into the food processor. Cut the chillies and remove the seeds. This curry is a fairly mild curry, if you would a bit more kick, only remove the seeds from 3 chillies and keep the seeds for the rest. Add the chillies into the food processor.
- Chop the pale green and white parts of the lemongrass into small pieces and place into the food processor along with 30ml of beef stock. Blend all the ingredients into a chunky paste. Add another 30ml of beef stock and process again. The paste should become a bit smoother. Add the remaining beef stock and process the curry paste into a fairly smooth paste, it's ok if there are some small chunks remaining still.
- Peel the potatoes and chop into large bite size chunks.
- In the previous large pot, set over med-high heat and add in the oil, then the curry paste. Stir fry the paste to cook out the liquid, until the paste looks like it has split, around 5 mins. Add in reserved onion, cinnamon stick, kaffir lime leaves and star anise. Stir fry for another 1 min, then add in the coconut cream. Add in some of the half of the reduced beef stock, the fish sauce, tamarind paste and palm sugar. Mix well and taste, adjust seasoning as needed.
- Add the potatoes and reduce to a simmer, cook for 10 mins, stirring occasionally. Add in the beef cheeks and the rest of the beef stock. Continue to gently simmer for another further 10mins for all the flavours to mix in together. Remember to stir to avoid burning the curry. Taste the curry again, season with salt if required. Serve hot over coconut or plain rice, garnished with toasted peanuts.
