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timetraveltasting · 2 months

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KING OF SIAM MASSAMAN CURRY (19th c.)

I've recently gone through a curry phase, so thought I would give a proper homemade one a go. So, I decided my next Tasting History dish would be the King of Siam Massaman Curry, a 19th century Thai recipe penned by Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn, who grew up in the Grand Palace during the reign of King Rama V (Chulalongkorn) of Siam. She learned to cook many of the dishes served at the Palace, and this is one that was passed down through the generations to Rosalind Yunibandhu, who published the cookbook this can be found in, Petals of the Champaka: Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, in 2021. I chose to make this recipe because I am already a massive fan of Thai food, and I thought it would be an interesting experience to see exactly what ingredients and methods go into making a curry fit for a king completely from scratch. Usually, I just buy curry paste, but not today! See Max’s video on how to make it here or see the ingredients and process at the end of this post, sourced from his website.

My experience making it:

I did my best to stick exactly to this recipe, but due to the long ingredient list, I inevitably had to make a few changes based on my location and what's available here. My ability to make this dish is entirely thanks to my local Asian grocer, which supplied me with several ingredients I had never cooked with before and are near impossible to find elsewhere (tamarind juice, galangal, shrimp paste, lemongrass... the list goes on!). I couldn't find medium spice red chili peppers that weren't those little Thai ones Max says not to use, so I ended up finding some green medium spicy chili peppers from Turkey. Among about 7 brands at the Asian grocer, I couldn't seem to find a coconut cream without emulsifiers, so I used the coconut oil tip Max mentions in his notes. Weirdly, I also couldn't find unsalted roasted peanuts at several local grocery stores, so I ended up using salted ones (I don't think this affected the taste too severely). My last change to the ingredients was using chopped red bell peppers instead of half the chicken, because I wanted to sneak another veggie into the recipe. The chicken is mostly a vessel for the curry sauce, so I figured, why not add another vessel?

The process for this King of Siam recipe, because it is a curry completely from scratch, took me 2.5-3 hours to make. I do cook at a bit of a slower pace in general, I think, but because this was a new and very complex recipe, it took me even longer than it should have. I first focused on making the curry paste, which required lots of fine chopping, roasting, and then grinding with the mortar and pestle (I don't have a spice grinder). Because I tired of grinding quite quickly, I don't think I got my curry paste quite as smooth and uniform as Max's, but the flavours are the most important, I think. My resulting curry paste looked less like a paste, and more like salsa verde - thanks to the green chili peppers mostly. However, it smelled divine! Next, on to the main curry. I seared the chicken lightly on all sides, set it aside, then added the coconut cream to my wok. Because my coconut cream had emulsifiers, I added a bit of coconut oil, gave it a mix, and after a minute or two it cracked and bubbled just as Max's did. I continued adding the rest of the ingredients as called for, but when it was time to add in my curry paste, I was a little miffed that my curry paste didn't really dissolve well into the coconut milk/cream. Mine was a bit too chunky, so there were bits floating in the sauce and bits that sank to the bottom. As a result, I had to keep stirring to prevent those bits from caking and cooking right onto the bottom of the wok. Eventually, the curry paste did dissolve more. I added in the chicken and bell peppers, and began the long simmer. During this time, Max says the curry sauce will naturally darken and thicken a bit. His turned almost a dark red colour, perhaps due to the red chili peppers he used. Mine seemed to turn a grey-beige colour, maybe due to the green chilis I used, but it never got that dark. Near the end of the simmering, I cooked up some jasmine rice and warmed up some Turkish Pide bread in the oven to dip into the sauce. A bit of an interesting mix of cultures on the plate, but let's just say I was matching the bread with the Turkish chilis I used. I served it up in a shareable casserole dish, and poured me and my husband a glass each of the leftover tamarind juice - I had taken a sip while cooking and found it really tasty! I was so proud of how this dish turned out, because it took ages to make, used tons of new-to-me ingredients, and it did look like a Thai curry, even if it didn't look like Max's King of Siam Massaman Curry.

My experience tasting it:

I first tried a tiny spoonful of just the curry sauce. It was super tasty! It actually tasted really close to how a yellow curry from a Thai restaurant tastes. I was shocked at how similar, especially because the colour was quite different. For my second bite, I added some sauce, chicken, and bell pepper on top of some jasmine rice and took a bite with all those elements. The chicken was so tender and held the curry flavour really well. I was so glad I added the bell peppers, too, because they added a nice freshness. The taste of the curry was very complex, the texture was creamy, and it only had a light spice. It was amazing how so many unique and often overpowering ingredients came together to form this complete new flavour where you can't pick out any of those ingredient flavours individually. It was absolutely delicious and rich. My husband and I polished off the entire King of Siam Massaman Curry, even sopping up what was left of the sauce with our bread until the dish was nearly clean. I had meant to keep some for the day after, since Max says the flavours really intensify if you let it sit in the fridge overnight, but that was just not going to happen - it was too tasty. While this recipe is definitely a winner, I don't know if I will ever make it again, only because of how long it took to make and how many ingredients it took to make (many of which either expensive or not easy to come by in my part of the world). Neither of these issues are anything the King of Siam would have to worry about, so I totally see why this recipe was a hit with King Rama V. You guessed it, I will continue to buy pre-packaged curry paste, despite the deliciousness of this dish. If you end up making this dish, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!

Links to harder-to-find ingredients:

Sorry... too many in this one, and Max didn't provide any links on where to get them. I may come back later and update this section if I find some online sources for the harder-to-find ingredients.

King of Siam Massaman Curry original recipe (19th c.)

Sourced from Petals of the Champaka: Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, published in 2021 using recipes by Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn from her timeliving in the palace of the King of Siam in the 19th century.

Pound chilies, shallots, garlic, coriander seeds and cumin together with shrimp paste, galangal, lemongrass, [cardamom, cloves] and a little roasted coconut, to a fine paste. Squeeze the coconut milk, separating the cream from the milk. Simmer the coconut cream until the oil separates out. Cut chicken into large pieces, pan-fry in oil until golden brown. Add the curry paste and stir until fragrant. Add the coconut milk together with the roasted peanuts [and cinnamon bark]. Simmer until tender, add fish sauce, sugar, tamarind juice, small shallots, bay leaf. Add 2-3 slices of ginger upon removing from the stove.

Modern Recipe

Based on Petals of the Champaka: Recipes To Teach My Children And Grandchildren, published in 2021 using recipes by Thanphuying Kleeb Mahidhorn from the 19th century, and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.

Ingredients:

Curry Paste

1 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp grated coconut

4 cloves

1 tsp cardamom seeds (from cardamom pods)

3 tbsp chopped shallots

6 to 7 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp chopped lemongrass

1 tbsp peeled and sliced galangal

7 chili peppers*, dried or fresh, seeds removed

1 tsp shrimp paste

Curry

2 pounds (1 kg) chicken thigh or beef, cut into 1 1/2” pieces

2-3 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut cream**

2 cups coconut milk (canned)

1/4 cup unsalted roasted peanuts

1 stick cassia cinnamon

2 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp (50 g) palm sugar

3 tbsp tamarind juice

1/2 cup shallots, chopped

3 bay leaves

3 slices of peeled ginger, about 1/8” thick

*As this dish isn’t meant to be spicy, don’t use small Thai chilies. Any mild chili will work, just remove the seeds and you’re good to go.

**Be sure to get coconut cream that doesn’t contain any emulsifiers, or this won’t work (the only ingredient should be coconut cream). Be sure to read the ingredients list. If this is unavailable to you, you can add some coconut oil to the cream, it just won’t taste quite the same.

Method:

For the curry paste: Put the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, grated coconut, cloves, and cardamom seeds into a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 3 to 4 minutes or until it is fragrant and the coconut is lightly browned. Remove from the pan and let cool.

Grind the spice mixture into a powder in a spice grinder or very clean coffee grinder, then set aside.

Remove the seeds from the chilies, wearing gloves if desired to protect hands from the spice. Roughly chop the chilies.

Add the shallots, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, and chilies to a dry pan over medium-high and cook, stirring constantly until the ingredients develop a bit of char.

Add the chilies mixture to a mortar and pestle grind with the shrimp paste. This will take a while and is best done by hand in order to properly release the oils.

Add the spice mixture and continue to grind until it is as smooth as you can get (it won’t be completely smooth).

For the curry: Melt the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat and add the chicken. Cook until browned and set aside.

While the chicken cooks, pour the coconut cream into a separate pan over medium heat and simmer until the oil separates out (cracking).

Once you see oil bubbles on the surface of the cream, it has cracked. Add the curry paste and stir until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer.

Add the chicken, peanuts, and cinnamon stick. Simmer until the chicken is tender, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Add fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind juice, shallots, and bay leaves. Simmer on low for 1 hour. It will darken as it cooks.

Taste and adjust seasonings if needed, then take it off the heat and add the ginger.

Cover and put in the fridge overnight to develop the flavors, or serve it forth right away with rice.

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