Panang Curry with Pork

Ingredients

• 600g pork loin or shoulder, sliced 5mm thick
• 400ml tin coconut milk, unshaken
• 70g panang curry paste
• 2 tbsp unsweetened peanut butter or 40g ground roasted peanuts
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 6 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 long red chilli, sliced on the diagonal
• 100ml water
• Handful Thai sweet basil leaves

Before you cook

• Slice the pork across the grain into 5mm pieces
• Spoon the thick cream from the top of the coconut tin into a bowl and keep the thin milk separate
• Tear the stems from four kaffir lime leaves and roll the leaves into a tight cigar, then shred them as finely as you can
• Leave the remaining two lime leaves whole
• Slice the red chilli on a long diagonal

Steps

1. Heat a wide pan over medium heat and add the thick coconut cream.
2. Simmer the cream for about five minutes until it thickens and oil separates out at the edges.
3. Add the panang paste and fry it for three minutes, stirring constantly so it does not catch.
4. Stir in the peanut butter and let it melt into the paste for one minute.
5. Add the sliced pork and turn it in the paste until every piece is coated and the outsides have turned pale.
6. Pour in the thin coconut milk and the water, then drop in the two whole lime leaves.
7. Simmer uncovered for twelve minutes so the sauce reduces and clings to the pork.
8. Season with the fish sauce and palm sugar, then stir until the sugar has dissolved.
9. Taste and adjust: panang should read salty and sweet first, with the heat arriving afterwards.
10. Stir through the basil leaves and turn off the heat as soon as they wilt.
11. Scatter the shredded lime leaf and sliced chilli over the top and serve with jasmine rice.