There is another theory that mussaman curry originated in southern Thailand, where it may have been based on dishes introduced by Arab traders. Since this curry is one of the few well know Thai dishes that uses beef rather than pork, it seems possible that the name mussaman is a corruption of ‘Muslim.’

Mussaman curry is one of the most complex of all Thai curries. It uses many more ingredients than most curries, and also takes more time to prepare than almost any other dish. The extra time is largely due to the use of potatoes, although a ‘long time’ to prepare a Thai dish is 20 minutes or more, compared to most other curries that require 10 minutes at most.

Mussman Curry with Chicken

Mussaman Curry Paste

First, you have to make the curry paste.

Ingredients

To prepare the curry paste, grind together the dried chillies, coriander seeds, fennel, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds, shallots, garlic, galangal and lemongrass to form a fine paste. Add the roasted peanuts and grind them into the paste.

Mussaman Curry Recipe

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

Preparation Method

Heat the coconut cream in a large pot to simmering. Stir in the prepared curry paste and continue to simmer until the fragrance is released. Add five tablespoons of fish sauce, five tablespoons of the tamarind juice and two tablespoons of the granulated sugar. Mix well until the fragrance returns, then add one tablespoon of the palm sugar.

Heat the coconut milk along with the meat in a pot. When it begins to simmer, pour in the coconut cream mixture along with the remainder of the seasonings.

Add the new potatoes and test the taste. Add more tamarind juice to make it more sour, or additional salt if needed.

When the potatoes are nearly done, add the onions, shallots, peanuts, cardamom leaves and cardamom seeds. Remove from heat.

Potatoes are a relatively recent introduction to the Thai table. Although potatoes originated in South America, the Spanish and Portuguese apparently did not bring them to Asia, as they did with many other new world foods such as chillies. I found a rather humorous account of how they came to Thailand in the Norwegian naturalist Carl Bock’s journal of his 1881 expedition to Northern Siam and Laos. In the book, Bock recounts a dinner with one of the principal “Chows” [princes] of Chiang Mai:

“As he had deferred to European customs in the form his invitation to dinner had taken, so the Chow now did his best to conform to civilized habits by using a knife and fork to eat with. But he was manifestly uncomfortable, and the effort at last became so irksome that he cast aside these unaccustomed implements, and fell back on his fingers and thumbs. The dishes were mostly Chinese, and call for no special comment. One item in the bill of fare, however, reminded me of home, viz. Potatoes – which had been introduced along with other vegetables into this country by the American missionaries, and which the Chow ate with great relish, helping himself to them sans cérémonie, in the good old-fashioned country-peasant style, and blowing his fingers to keep them cool.”

Potatoes aren’t quite as popular with the average Thai as they appear to have been with the late prince, although they are readily available in American fast food chains as well as chips (crisps to the British) in convenience stores. However, in traditional Thai cuisine, the potato rarely makes an appearance.