Do try this at home: Night + Market’s Panang beef curry

Kris Yenbamroong grew up a restaurant brat in Talési, the Thai spot his parents ran on the Sunset strip. At age 13, Yenbamroong moved from Los Angeles to Thailand, where he got hooked on street food and socializing at meals. But to date, his grandmother, Vilai, has been the biggest influence on Yenbamroong’s cuisine. (Try it at his wildly successful restaurants, Night + Market in West Hollywood and Night + Market Song in Silver Lake.) Although she frequently calls Kris’s food meun nak, which means “heavy-handed” in Thai, Vilai also jokes that her grandson is an alcoholic who makes food for drunkards.

Not surprisingly, Yenbamroog’s script for Panang beef curry, a stand-out in his new Night + Market cookbook, is based on his grandmother’s recipe. The dish is made with uncomplicated methods but packs complex flavors, like the food on the Night + Market menus. “I believe in working smarter, not harder,” he says. “Every dish at Night + Market is streamlined with a simple question: How minimal can we go and still come up with the best product?”

PANANG BEEF CURRY

My grandmother’s Panang curry is a menu workhorse for good reason. Rich and fragrant, it’s the ultimate gateway for people who are more accustomed to creamy Indian curries. At Night + Market, I’ve tweaked her recipe to make it my own, which involves my trying to make it more addictive. For example, we serve Panang en neua, made with sinewy cuts of beef shank. The thick tendons break down to rich gelatin as they simmer in coconut milk. In general, chewier, tougher cuts offer beefier flavors, but take longer to simmer. A happy compromise is using hanger steak, which is commonly available and has a fair amount of sinew but won’t take forever to braise. My other tweak is peanut butter. Traditionally Panang is made with crushed peanuts, but my secret is to use a scoop of crunchy peanut butter for another layer of lushness. At the restaurant, we serve Panang with steamed jasmine rice or roti bread. You can make your own roti, or buy the frozen ones.

Yield: Makes four servings.

Ingredients

½ tsp coriander seeds

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp grated key lime zest

2½ Tbsp all-purpose curry paste (recipe follows)

1 13½-ounce can coconut milk

1 pound chuck steak or shoulder steak, sliced across the grain into ¼-inch-thick strips*

1½ Tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp coconut or palm sugar

1½ Tbsp chunky peanut butter

Kaffir lime leaves, deveined and slivered, for garnish

1 Fresno chile, seeded and cut into thin slivers

Instructions

In a dry skillet, toast the coriander and cumin seeds over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes or until fragrant. Transfer the seeds to a small coffee or spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. In a small bowl, combine the ground spices, lime zest and curry paste and stir until completely incorporated. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat the coconut milk over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbling. Measure out 1 tablespoon of the milk and set aside. Stir in the steak, curry paste, fish sauce, coconut sugar and 1½ cups water. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender, 1 to 1¼ hours. Add some water if the mixture becomes too thick — the consistency should resemble a light gravy. At the last minute, stir in the peanut butter and remove from the heat.

Pour the curry into individual bowls. Garnish each one with a dollop of the reserved coconut milk, the kaffir lime leaves and the sliced chile. Serve with a side of jasmine rice or roti bread.

*Note: Fresh-toasted coriander and cumin seeds give panang its trademark aroma. When selecting beef for curry, look for cuts that aren’t too lean or completely trimmed of fat and connective tissue, which help keep the meat tender as it simmers.

ALL-PURPOSE CURRY PASTE*

Ingredients

Kosher salt

½ cup thinly-sliced lemongrass

¼ cup roughly-sliced galangal

10 large dried chiles (New Mexico or ancho chiles), stemmed

4 kaffir lime leaves, deveined and julienned, or grated zest of 2 key limes

½ cup roughly sliced shallots

¾ cup garlic cloves, peeled but kept whole

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

⅓ cup vegetable oil

Instructions

In a food processor or blender, process the ingredients in this order (starting with the hardest and adding them one by one), sprinkling each with a pinch of salt to help break them up: lemongrass, galangal, chiles, lime leaves, shallots, garlic and shrimp paste. Blend until each ingredient is totally incorporated before adding the next, stopping as needed to scrape down the sides with a spatula. By the end, you should end up with a thick semi-dry paste.

In a wok or small skillet, heat the oil over medium-low heat until shimmering. Stir in the curry paste and cook until the oil is combined and the mixture is very fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. This part helps the paste keep longer and become more hom, which isthe Thai word for the savory fragrant aroma that happens when you toast or roast something. Let cool completely before transferring to an airtight container. The paste keeps in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

*To make a green curry paste, add 1 tablespoon toasted ground coriander to the paste ingredients. Omit the dried red chiles and substitute an equal amount of fresh green chiles. Use a mix of half bird’s eye chiles and half shishito peppers, long peppers or any mild green chile that is not too fleshy. To make a vegan version of the curry paste, omit the shrimp paste and add extra salt or thin soy sauce to taste.

Photos by Marcus Nilsson