Panang Curry w/ Sous-Vide Beef

I've made this type of dish several times with several variances. We were over at a friends house and she added something I have never added to mine before… Kaffir leaves (She's from Thailand too). Wow it made such a difference. Anyhow this is less of a recipe and more of a how to. This dish will work with chicken and any curry paste you have on hand. There are quite a few different curry pastes on the market and they're all unique so chose which one you want. If you are willing to take on the task of making your own curry and you have access to unique ingredients that would be awesome to do because you can customize the curry to reflect your own palate. What makes my dish unique to many is my use of Sous-Vide. I've become very spoiled with Sous-Vide and if you know anything about this cooking method you understand why. SV makes dishes like this very easy to prepare. When you SV beef specifically the tenderness has no equal. Is this a traditional or authentic dish? Probably not. Heck authentic and traditional are subjective. Here is a quote from a friend "Normism Authenticity is an attempt to standardize one's own opinion as fact" 

Ok…. let's talk beef. Like I said earlier Sous-Vide has spoiled me. It's very rare that I prepare beef any other way. So I chose Flat-Iron Steaks. If you want some extra details click the link. Anyhow I Dry-Brined the protein with 1% Fish Salt which is a product from Red-Boat. Example- 1000 grams of beef use 10 grams of the fish salt. Coat the beef with the salt and vac seal and refrigerate for 3 days. Warm-Age at 113 f for 3 hours and finish at 133 f for 7 hours. Shock and refrigerate. When you are ready to prepare the dish…. remove from vac seal, dry off and slice very thin. 

Cut up your veggies and get ready to cook. 

Chop these cloves up very fine……Let's not leave out the green onion. 

Let's not forget the Kaffir leaves. If you cannot find them just don't use them. Or…. use some Lime Zest. 

Thai Basil is essential too….if you cannot find any use regular Basil. Let's not forget Cilantro. Chop this up too. 






And the dish would not be complete without the star component.

And you need some coconut milk and as an option some Thai Chilies. Can you handle heat?

Crushed peanuts…. and have a bottle of fish sauce on hand too. My favorite brand is Red Boat. 

Love Palm Sugar. Not as sweet as regular sugar. Just toss in a few of these  (if they are really big crack them in half) to bring out some natural sweetness. 

A real wok would be nice to have on hand. If you don't have one of these use a very large skillet.

Add some Avocado Oil or equivalent oil of your choice. You need a oil with a high smoke point. Toss in a can or two of the curry paste. Fry on high heat until you see the oil start to released from the paste. At this point I would the garlic. 

Toss in peppers and fish sauce….and if you want real kicked up heat add in the chilis too. 

Toss in meat (and mix it all around) and start tossing in the rest of the ingredients. Toss in green onions, coconut milk, Palm Sugar (if you want it really sweet add some regular sugar too) Kaffir leaves, cilantro. Since the meat is already cooked and tender this dish goes fast (maybe 8 minutes). Toss in the basil for the last 5 minutes of cooking.

Maybe top with bean sprouts and sesame seeds.