Wendell's Panang Chicken Curry

Thank you Gordon Lum .  .  . for the recipe of DA BEST curry that I've ever eaten.

I normally don't care for curry. You know da-kine chicken-katsu-curry . . . or da-kine curry you might get at some local drive-inn with the potatoes and carrots . . . or da-kine Japanese curry rice? Not for me.

But this one . . . holy cow . . . I just loooooooved it. You can find the recipe here. I must say that of all the dishes that Wendell has made, this is one of my most favorite. 

If you're a non-cook and don't normally try recipes like this one because it looks too hard or you're too lazy (me), just this once, TRY DO THIS ONE. You . . . will . . . impress. 

Wendell did use the Mae Ploy brand curry paste and the Mae Ploy brand coconut milk (from Asian Market on Beretania) and he did put in the macadamia nuts (kicked it up a notch). Wendell said that he got the raw sugar (photo way below) from either Foodland or Safeway (he couldn't remember).  He didn't use a Dutch oven (whatever that is) but used a pan on the stove instead. The inedible bits of finely diced Kaffir lime leaves (also from Asian Market) were annoying to me . . . had to spit them out. Not sure if putting them in whole so that they can be easily taken out afterwards would work, but it's just a suggestion.



2 lbs. boned chicken thighs
2.5 tablespoons panang curry paste (2 oz Mae Ploy brand)
19 ounces coconut milk (or 1 can Mae Ploy brand)
3 tablespoons roughly ground Island Princess Hawaii macadamia nuts (unsalted)
2 tablespoons turbinado or raw sugar
3 finely diced Kaffir Lime leaves
2 teaspoons fish sauce to taste
1 sliced bell pepper (any color)
1 sliced onion
1 cup flour (for dredging)
4 tablespoons oil
Hawaiian salt to taste
pepper to taste
4-5 Thai Basil leaves (optional)

Rinse, then dry the boned chicken thighs. Lightly salt and pepper the thighs on both sides and then dredge in flour, shaking off the excess flour. Heat the Dutch oven and add oil. Sear both sides of thighs until it becomes a light golden brown (about 70% cooked). Set thighs aside. While they are cooling, slice the bell pepper/onion; finely dice the Kaffir Lime leaves, and roughly grind/chop the macadamia nuts. After the chicken thighs cool, cut into chunks.

Heat (about 1/4 cup) the oil and add the curry paste, searing the paste for a minute. Add the chicken chunks and stir until the chunks are coated with the paste. Add the peppers and onion and stir until they are also coated. Add the coconut milk, Kaffir lime leaves, turbinado sugar, macadamia nut, and fish sauce to the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Garnish with basil leaves.

This is the sugar that Wendell used.  DO IT!

Thai Spicy Sauce

Check out Honolulu Aunty's awesome video below and then go to her blog here for the recipe. Looks so ono and easy to make! 

Wendell's Thai Pork Chop

Wendell made this last night, and all I can say is this was ono, ono, ono!  You can find the recipe here:  Thai Rib Eye Pork Chops

Wendell's Thai Shrimp and Eggplant Stir-Fry

Do you remember the Beef Broccoli and the Cauliflower with Tofu dishes that Wendell made recently? This recipe is from the same Health Magazine!

• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 5 tsp. peanut oil
• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 3 slender Japanese eggplants, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
• 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 Fresno chilies, seeded and slivered
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 cup loosely torn basil leaves
• Lime wedges, for serving
• Cooked rice noodles, optional

1. In a small bowl, whisk lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and 2 Tbsp. water.

2. In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. oil over medium-high heat until very hot; swirl to coat skillet. Add shrimp and stir-fry until just pink, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl.

3. Add 2 tsp. oil and half of eggplant to skillet. Cook, undisturbed, for 2 minutes, then stir-fry for 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl with shrimp. Add another 2 tsp. oil; repeat with remaining eggplant. Make a well in center and add remaining 1 tsp. oil, garlic, chilies and scallion. Stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.

4. Add shrimp, eggplant and sauce to skillet. Cook, tossing well, until heated through, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in basil. Serve with lime wedges and rice noodles, if desired. 

Curry Cookoff!

We had a curry cookoff at work yesterday.  All of the entries were so ono, it was really hard to choose a favorite. For $5 we got to eat all we wanted and then we could vote for our favorite.  The cook of the winning curry got to keep the money.



This is Lorna's Japanese style curry.


Leslie's Chicken Tikka Masala with Basmati Rice and Naan Bread. It's kinda messed up because I couldn't wait to taste it.


Susie's Thai Green Curry.


CQ's Chicken and Salmon Curry with Mandarin Orange.


Jay's Hot Pepper Curry


This is the winning dish.  Ronnie's Thai Curry with Sticky Rice.


Here's Ronnie's recipe that he put together for me last night. Thanks Ronnie!

Chicken Larb

This is the Chicken Larb from Bangkok Chef. It's my favorite dish from there. You put a spoonful onto a cabbage leaf and eat it like a wrap. I've been known to get two orders of this, one for now and one for later.



The last time I was at Marukai, Wendell pointed out to me that they had some ground chicken. I picked up a couple of trays so that I could try and make my own Larb. I couldn't find an easy recipe to my liking, so I kinda made up my own by combining recipes I found online.

I soaked about 2 pounds of the ground chicken in 1/2 cup of lemon juice for 10 minutes. All the recipes I found said to use lime juice, but I had a bag of lemons that I had just bought from Costco, so I used the lemons instead. I threw the chicken into a skillet with about a fourth of a really white onion, sliced. I found the onion in the 'fridge and with my limited cooking expertise am not sure if this onion was different from regular onions but it was really white.



I added 5 tablespoons of fish sauce.

Then I added 2 spoonsful of chili paste to a bunch of basil leaves and a bunch of chopped green onions.

This is the chili paste that I used.


The resultant concoction ended up with a lot of liquid so I just turned up the heat and let most of the liquid evaporate. Guess what? It turned out really good!! Hahaha. In fact Leslie said she liked it better than Bangkok Chef's! I forgot to buy cabbage so we ate it with some multigrain tortilla chips instead.

Red Curry Pork with Pumpkin

Wendell made this awhile back and it was really good. I loved the pumpkin in it. The recipe doesn't call for it but he threw in baby corn.

Stir fry 1 T. oil, 1 1/2 T. red curry paste and 4 T coconut milk.

Add 1/2 lb. pork, 1 1/4 c. coconut milk, 2 T. fish sauce, 1 t. palm sugar 1/4 t. paprika and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook 10 minutes.

Add 1 c. kabocha pumpkin and cook 5 more minutes.

Thai Steak

Last night's dinner was Thai steak. I'm not much of a steak eater, but I can tell you that it was very, very tasty and small-kine spicy. Marinate steak in the following sauce for 15 minutes before broiling or hibachiing:

1 T. fish sauce
1 t. worcestershire sauce
1/4 t. sugar
1/4 t. sweet soy sauce
3/4 T. lime juice
1/2 t. each (minced): garlic, chili, pepper
1/2 T. minced onion

Thai Masaman Beef Curry - 10/27/2008

Wendell used tri-tip for this curry, so the meat was very soft. It was really ono, just like from a Thai restaurant. Too bad nevah have sticky rice.
Boil 1 lb. beef (cut into pieces) and 3 T. peanuts in water. Reduce heat to low and cook for 40 minutes. Add 2 potatoes (cut into pieces) and cook another 20 minutes.

On medium heat in a separate pan stir fry 1 T. oil, 1 1/2 T. masaman curry paste and 4 T. coconut milk until fragrant. Add the meat, potatoes and peanuts. Then add 1 1/4 c. coconut milk, 2 T. fish sauce, 1 t. palm sugar, 1 t. lime juice and 1/4 t. paprika. Reduce heat to low and cook 10 minutes. Add 1/4 onion and cook briefly.