Bad Days and Comfort Food, Beef Panang Curry

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Beef Panang Curry is one of my favorite comfort food dishes and today called for comfort food.

Affiliate link for my favorite rice cooker in this post. 

It was one of those days. The sun came out this morning and it warmed up beautifully. I had several errands to run, and while they all took time, each stop went smoothly. Finally, I was home for the afternoon and the day could go swimmingly.

Or not. Just like that the sky started to turn gray and the bad news and failure kind of day started. Just like that. It seemed I couldn’t get anything right and nothing could fall into place just like it was supposed to.

Sometimes you just need to let the day go when it’s bad and nurture yourself with some comfort food. Good thing I already planned one of my favorite comfort food meals for dinner –  beef panang curry.

I got hooked on beef panang curry when we lived in PA but never got around to figuring out if I could make it myself until a friend who knows her Thai food and I were talking about different dishes. I told her about this beef panang curry dish I really liked and she pulled the directions for chicken panang curry from her memory.

I took it from there, finding a Thai red curry paste recipe I liked (you will find it in the recipe) and putting Jasmine rice in the rice cooker. If you don’t have one, here’s one I LOVE. It’s such a handy thing to have so I can start the rice and forget it. By the way, check out my friend’s work. She’s kinda pretty awesome.

It’s exactly the dish I needed today, and while food doesn’t make everything better, it sure can give you the tiniest bit better outlook on life. I might still be stuck in my feeling of failure a bit but hopefully the sun comes out tomorrow. Until then, how about some comfort food?

Beef Panang Curry

Print Recipe

• Author: Heather L McCurdy
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Entree
• Cuisine: Thai

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 – 2 lbs. beef such as top round roast
• 8 cups large-diced veggies such as: eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, green beans, bell peppers, onions, carrots
• Thai red chili paste to taste*
• 2 (16 oz.) cans reduced fat coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons peanut or coconut oil + more as needed
• 6 Thai basil leaves
• 3 Kaffir lime leaves

Instructions

• Heat oil in deep skillet or wide bottomed stock pot. 
• Thinly slice beef and add to oil. 
• While beef is frying, chop vegetables. Use whatever you have on hand. 
• When beef is almost done frying, add veggies. 
• If pan becomes dry add more oil.
• When veggies are almost done, stir in 1 teaspoon red curry paste. 
• Taste test and add curry paste to desired heat level. 
• Thinly slice Thai basil and lime leaf and add to pan. 
• Cook a few minutes to soften. 
• Add coconut milk. Stir and taste for desired heat. Add more red curry paste as needed. 
• Serve over Jasmine rice. 

Notes

• I like to make this Thais red curry paste. Amount you need depends on heat level of peppers you use. Start sparingly and taste as you add. I use 3 Thai birdseye and 10 guajillo peppers and needed to use the whole batch of paste. You can always use more birdseye chiles if you use milder dried red chiles. 

What’s your favorite comfort food for a day that just isn’t going right?

If I’m not making this tasty “from scratch” curry, I’m whipping up some beef stew or chicken noodle soup – the recipes I grew up with.

Pin this beef panang curry recipe for later!

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