Although Penang is in Malaysia, I learnt to make this in Phuket, Thailand. It is a rich red warm curry that mixes the flavours of Malaysia, Burma and India together.
Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients in the Penang sauce as they require very little preparation and are simply tossed into a food processor or chopper and easily blitzed.
Serve with rice.
You can buy red curry pastes but do make sure they are kosher as many contain, shrimp paste and or oyster sauce!
You can make the curry paste in advance and freeze in ice cubes. One cube per person!
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 8
Ingredients:
For the Penang Curry Sauce
15-20 dried chillies – soak in water for 20 minutes
1 stalk – lemongrass – purple part only
3 dried kaffir lime leaves
1 teaspoon coriander leaf root
40g fresh garlic – approx. 9 cloves - peeled
125g shallots- approx. 5 -peeled
1 teaspoon roasted coriander seed
½ teaspoon roasted cumin seeds
15 black pepper corns
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric powder/ fresh root
100g unsalted peanuts- shelled
Vegetables
400g Tin coconut milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
450g Smoked Tofu
300g Sugar snap peas
350g baby sweet corn
2 red peppers- deseeded and cut into large cubes
300g Green beans – cut in half
2 limes – juice only
Method
To make the curry paste, drain the water away from the chillies. Place all the ingredients into the food processor to produce a paste. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if it seems too thick.
Add the vegetable oil to the pan warm it up and add the smoked tofu and pan fry for 1-2 minutes on each side until just golden. Remove and set aside.
Add the curry paste and stir until you smell curry – about 3 seconds.
Add the coconut milk and bring it to the boil. Return the tofu, add the sugar snaps, baby sweet corn, red
peppers, green beans and simmer for 5 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
To finish stir in the lime juice and garnish with sprigs of coriander and some chopped peanuts.
