Massaman Curry With Pork

My mom made a killer Massaman. Her Massaman is a bit untraditional because she would add pineapple to the dish too. Pineapple would give a hint of sweet and sour taste to the curry sauce. At the same time, it helps to tenderize the meat as well. However, I don’t have any fresh pineapple at home. So today I made the traditional version of Massaman instead.

Ingredients (2 servings)

• 500 g. pork

• 4-5 tbsp Massaman curry paste

• 500 g. potato, large diced

• 1 large onion, large diced

• 1/2 cup roasted peanut

• 700 ml. coconut milk

• 300 ml. water

• 2 tbsp salt

• 1 stock cube

• 2-3 tbsp sugar

• 2 tbsp tamarin paste

• 8 Thai cardamom seed (optional)

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 3 star anis

• 4-5 bay leaves

How to:

✔️ Cut  the pork in pieces, big cube, the same size as you would make a stew. Then cook the pork, roasted peanut and stock cube in 200 ml. coconut milk and 300 ml. water, and let it simmer in a low heat for at least 1 hour.

✔️ Roast Thai cardamom seed, cinnamon, star anis and bay leaves in a pan, and set it aside.

✔️ Add about 1/2 cup of creamy part of coconut milk or add 100 ml. coconut milk and Massaman curry paste to a pan. Cook the paste in low heat for 5 mins. Then pour the cooked pasted into the pot with cooked pork.

✔️ Add the last of coconut milk, roasted spices, potato, onion and all the seasonings to the pot, and bring it to boil. Then bring the heat down to medium and let it simmer for 30-45 mins. 

Tips and tricks:

 🤓 To make a child friendly version of massaman, before I poured the cooked Massaman cream to the main pot, I took out some part of cooked pork (with the soup too) and set some of the roasted herbs aside. Then I cooked it with the same approach as a normal version (without the Massaman paste). 

And before I finished it off, I took out some of the red oil on the surface of normal Massaman in the big pot, and add them to the baby pot, so it can add more aroma and color to the child version.