Gaeng Pa Nua Yang

 Grilled Beef Curry, Country Style

Warning, this is seriously hot, depending on the particular dried and fresh chillis used, it is meant to be pretty hot, but use less chillis if you are not a chilli-addict like me.

(This is a simply-thai.com online recipe. http://www.simply-thai.com/thai-food-recipes-gaeng-pa.htm)

Ingredients

• 500g Grilled beef; sliced

• 15 Dried red chilli peppers-chopped & soaked in boiling-water

• 7 Cloves garlic

• 5 Shallots

• 1 teaspoon Peppercorns; black or white

• 1 tbs coriander root; chopped

• 5 tbs Lemon grass; sliced (use from a jar at a pinch)

• 2 tbs Galangal; sliced (use preserved from a jar at a pinch)

• 1 teaspoon Kaffir Lime zest

• 1 teaspoon Shrimp paste - gupi

• 5 teaspoons Fish sauce - nam pla

• 1 teaspoon Palm sugar

• 2 cups Baby eggplant; chopped  (if you can’t get the baby eggplant, use fresh green beans plus some diced small long eggplant and/or some red/green capsicum.)

• 1 cup thai basil leaves

• 1/2 cup prik chee-fa chillies; shredded (larger than birds-eye, milder)

• 1/2 cup Kaffir lime leaves; shredded

• Green peppercorns on the stalk, fresh (hard to get) or preserved (jar), optional, but adds an extra dimension of flavour and spicy heat, you can eat them or just enjoy the flavour from where they have been.

• 5 cups Water (total, I used a bit less, it's a bit soupy otherwise)

Instructions

1. Drain chillies & reserve the water to go as part of the 5 cups water called for later.

2. In a mortar & pestle or food processor grind together the ingredients, from dried chilli to kaffir lime zest, into a fine paste.

3. Add shrimp paste & mix well.

4. Put the reserved chilli water and enough more to make 1 cup in a wok & bring to a boil while

5. Bring 4 more cups of water to a boil in a pot. (See alternative at point 9)

6. Add paste mixture to the wok & boil until fragrant.

7. Add grilled beef to the wok,

8. Stir until blended.

9. Season with fish sauce & palm sugar, then pour mixture into the pot of boiling water.  (Or boil water in a kettle and add to the wok until you have the right degree of liquid, I used 3 cups instead of 4)

10. Add eggplant (or substitute), basil leaves, chilli, (green pepper corns) & lime leaf shreds & mix well.

Transfer to serving platter & garnish with more chilli shreds & whole basil leaves. Serve with steamed Thai jasmine rice.

This can also be made with Pork or Chicken.