Massaman curry is a famous Thai curry that has been ranked number one in the CNN travel best food of the world ranking. There is some debate about the origin of this dish. The most widely accepted origin story is that this dish has Persian roots. This follows from the name of the dish and its ingredients. The word Massaman could be derived from the old Persian word for Muslim. The dish contains spices that are not common in other Thai curries and the trade in these spices was in the past dominated by Muslims.
Key components of this dish are potatoes, peanuts, a protein of choice, coconut milk and massaman curry paste which contains a variety of spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cumin, bay leaves, nutmeg, and mace. We gave this curry a wild twist by replacing potatoes with Jerusalem Artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus), and peanuts with wild hazelnuts (Corylus avellana). As meat replacement, we added wood ear mushrooms (Auricularia auricula-judae), orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia). As wild aromatics we added crow garlic (Allium vineale) and hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium). The hogweed is added as an aromatic during cooking to give an extra cardamom flavor to the dish.
We used mushrooms that are in season at the moment of creating this recipe (late fall). The orange peel fungus is a bit of an odd mushroom that as its name suggests could easily be mistaken for some thrown away orange peels. The mushroom can be found in the fall and winter in a variety of habitats. It is often consumed raw and it has a mild mushroom flavor. As a bonus it adds a nice bright orange coloring component to a dish.
With all these wild ingredients this curry is a bit in the spirit of what is known in Thailand as a Jungle curry where whatever ingredients could be foraged are a key component.
Wild Massaman Curry
Equipment
- 1 Chopping board
- 1 Peeler
- 1 Cooking knife
- 1 Nut cracker
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 cooking pot
Ingredients
- 350 gram Peeled Jerusalem artichokes
- 50 gram Cracked hazelnuts (165 gram including shell)
- hand full crow garlic
- 1 hogweed stem
- 50 gram Orange peel fungus
- 100 gram Dried wood ear
- 2 tbsp Massaman Curry paste
- 330 ml Thai coconut creme
- 330 ml Water
- 4 gram Sugar
- Thai fish sauce to taste
Instructions
- Clean and peel the Jerusalem artichokes and chop them into chunks.
- Crack the hazelnuts.
- Dry roast the hazelnuts on low to medium heat in a frying pan until they start to color light brown. Set aside.
- Clean the orange peel fungus and chop in the smaller slices.
- Clean the crow garlic in chop into thin slices.
- Poor half of the coconut milk to a cooking pot and reduce by about 50% over low to medium heat.
- When the coconut milk has reduced add the curry paste and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add the remaining coconut milk and water. Bring to a boil and add the artichokes, wood ears and hogweed. Cook until the artichokes are fork tender.
- Remove the hogweed, add the orange peel fungus and crow garlic. Add fish sauce to taste and mix the curry well and serve.
