The curry test

I was revising my pantry yesterday and came across 4 packs of instant curry paste. These aren’t the classic and basic Thai green, red and yellow curries. These are more special – Matsaman, Madras, Panaeng curries and the very special Korean Ottogi curry. Very special because I have never seen it before :)


I do use stuff like this sometimes when we need to eat something fast and I don’t want to indulge in any cooking. All you have to do with these is cut up some meat, roast the paste a bit, add meat and maybe some vegetables, add coconut milk and let simmer for a few minutes. The results vary though, from very acceptable to plain bad. Let’s give these 4 curries a go and find out whether it is possible to cook a palatable or even tasty quick meal from prefabricated stuff like that.
The first contestant is the Panaeng curry with chicken.
It did smell nice while the paste was being roasted. I added some green beans for colour and texture.

But tastewise it was just ok and I won't be buying it again. I had to add some fish sauce and quiet a lot of brown sugar to make it more interesting. It absolutely lacked the depth of flavour a curry should have. It’s described as „Mild“, but is rather medium hot. The coconut milk desintegrates into lots of fat when cooked too long and this is what happened in my case. I overcooked it a bit.
I would not have been happy if I was served this in a restaurant, but if you're come home hungry and exhausted it will do the trick for you. Don't expect any wonders though.