Massaman curry

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Massaman curry
star anise, palm sugar, fish sauce, chili and tamarind juice
Similar dishesSaraman curry[1]

Massaman curry (

white pepper, shrimp paste, shallots, and garlic) to make massaman curry paste. The substance of the dish is usually based on chicken or other meat, potatoes, onions, and peanuts. The richness comes from the coconut milk
and cream used as a base, as for many Thai curries.

In 2011,

CNNGo ranked massaman curry as the number one most delicious food in an article titled "World's 50 most delicious foods".[3] However, by a reader's survey, it ranked number ten.[4] It remained at number one in the official, updated 2018 version.[5]

Description

Due to its

mutton, goat, or rarely, pork.[6][7] As pork is haram (forbidden) in Islam, this last variant is not eaten by observant Thai Muslims. Vegetarians and vegans have created their own versions of this dish, such as using tofu
and substituting any shrimp paste or fish sauce used.

The Muslim roots of the dish are evident in many of the flavors of the massaman

mace would, in the 17th century, have been brought to Thailand from the Malay Archipelago and South Asia by foreigners, a trade originally dominated by Muslim traders from the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and from the archipelago itself, but increasingly undertaken by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French East India Company.[8]

These foreign spices and flavors are then combined with local produce and flavors commonly used in native Thai cuisine such as dried

white pepper, shrimp paste, shallots, and garlic
to make the massaman curry paste.

The curry paste is first

coconut cream, and only then are meat, potatoes, onions, fish sauce or salt, tamarind paste, sugar, coconut milk and peanuts added.[10][11] Massaman is usually eaten with rice together in a meal with other dishes. There are also traditional versions using oranges, orange juice, or pineapple juice as additional ingredients.[12]

History

star anise, cinnamon and clove
Beef massaman curry served in a bowl

The name massaman is a corruption of the term mosalman, an archaic word derived from Persian, meaning "Muslim". Hence, many earlier writers from the mid-19th century called the dish "Mussulman curry".[13] [14][15]

According to Thai journalist and scholar

Sheik Ahmad Qomi, from whom the noble Thai Bunnag family descends.[16][17] Most theories contend that massaman is a southern Thai dish influenced by Malay and Indian cuisine.[18]

Ayutthaya
, mid-17th century

The curry is extolled in the poem

King Rama II (1767-1824). It is dedicated to a lady who is thought to be Princess Bunrot, the later Queen Sri Suriyendra, wife of King Rama II. The second stanza
of the poem reads:

The first-ever recorded recipe for massaman curry by Lady Plean Passakornrawong in 1889: "Chicken Massaman curry with bitter orange juice", with Massaman spelled Matsaman (หมัดสมั่น).[20] By 2002 it was being included in Australian recipe books as "Musaman beef curry"[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Carter, Terence (13 November 2014). "A Recipe for Saraman Curry or Cari Saramann – a Cambodian curry". Grantourismo Travels. Retrieved 25 October 2019. The similarity between Cambodia's Saraman curry and Thailand's Massaman curry (also written as Mussaman curry) lies in the base curry paste with just a few ingredients setting the Saraman curry apart.
  2. ISBN 978-1-86205-514-8
  3. ^ "World's 50 most delicious foods". CNNGo. Cable News Network. 21 July 2011. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  4. ^ "World's 50 most delicious foods". CNNGo. Cable News Network. 7 September 2011. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
  5. ^ "The world's 50 best foods". CNN Travel. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Thai Muslim Goat Curry (Wednesday Photo)". Thai Food and Travel Blog.
  7. ^ "Thai Massaman Curry Recipe". Temple of Thai.
  8. ^ Omar Farouk Shaeik Ahmad. "Muslims in the Kingdom of Ayutthaya" (PDF). Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. pp. 208–212. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  9. ^ Cummings, Joe (2000). World Food: Thailand. Melbourne, Australia: Lonely Planet. p. 79. Chili peppers from the Americas were introduced to the region by the Spanish and Portuguese during the 16th and 17th century
  10. ^ Netsuwan, Natty. "Massaman Curry Paste—Prig Gang Mussamun พริกแกงมัสมั่น". ThaiTable.
  11. ^ a b Punyaratabandhu, Leela. "Massaman (Matsaman) Curry Recipe (แกงมัสมั่น)". She Simmers. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  12. ^ "Beef Massaman Curry Recipe". Thai Table.
  13. ^ "massaman". Wiktionary. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  14. ^ The Magazine of Domestic Economy, Volume 5, p.63 (Google eBook), W.S. Orr & Company, 1840, accessed 2014-08-17: "A Mussulman Curry is made in the same way..."
  15. ^ Sorties into Thai cultural history, Office of the National Culture Commission, Ministry of Education, 1982, accessed on Google Books 2014-08-17
  16. ^ "How to Make Gaeng Massaman Neua (Thai Massaman Curry With Beef)". Serious Eats. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  17. ^ Wongcha-Um, Panu (2010). What is Thai Cuisine? Thai Culinary Identity Construction From The Rise of the Bangkok Dynasty to Its Revival (MA Thesis). Singapore: National University of Singapore. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  18. ^ "Southern Thai Massaman Curry". Temple of Thai.
  19. ^ The complete poem in th.wikisource.org (in Thai)
  20. ^ "Massaman Curry - The Untold Story (แกงมัสมั่น - แกงมาชะแมน - แกงหมัดสมั่น)". Thaifoodmaster. 2016-08-28. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  21. ^ bowl food: the new comfort food for people on the move 2002 Murdoch books Ed K Gasparini pp293
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