How to Make Panang Curry with Jet Tila _ Ready Jet Cook With Jet Tila _ Food Network

Hey guys , I'm Jet Tila and this is Ready Jet Cook where I take the mystery out of Asian cuisine by showing you how to make some of my favorite dishes from shop to finish .

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Thai pan and curry is the ultimate comfort food in Thailand .

But for me , it's also got a touch of romance .

Let me show you .

So in making curry , don't be scared to buy pre-made curry paste .

I do it all the time .

All the base flavors are here and the experts are doing it because they've been doing it for 100 years .

Everyone's talking about making their own past .

But dude , leave it to the pros .

So you can't make curry without coconut milk .

Trust me .

When I tell you don't shake the can , you'll find out why when we get into the kitchen .

So before we check out , I need some Thai lime leaves also known as groot .

They come fresh frozen or dry .

They're not just any lime leaf off any tree .

So if you can't find them , just use some lime zest because these are an essential flavor in Thai cooking .

But I'm gonna bring my wife Allie into the kitchen .

She'll show you how to cook these dishes .

All right .

All guess which one of your favorite dishes we're making now ?

My very favorite .

Is it my very , very , very favorite ?

I have no idea .

It just , do you know which one ?

It is ?

Which one if it's my very , very , very favorite ?

It's Penang Curry .

Oh , yes , you are correct .

So I'm gonna kind of get into it .

Let's get into it .

And then we should tell the story of the significance of this dish because this really is the dish that brought us together , you know .

All right .

Um All right , Penang curry since you know this dish so well , do you mind prepping some of the vegetables ?

Of course .

All right , excellent .

And I'm going to talk to our friends about the two most important ingredients in Penang curry .

One is coconut milk and the other one is curry paste .

Now with coconut milk .

Grandma always said do not shake your can of coconut milk .

Why ?

So right now , Allie and friends , if you don't shake the can of coconut milk , you get this amazing layer of undisturbed coconut cream .

And we're gonna need to use this coconut cream almost like frying oil or frying fat .

Like you would use butter .

That's coconut heaven right there .

I use that in a lot of different things .

You can use it in desserts .

I use it in my chia pudding recipe .

I love that stuff .

So to start the curry , we're gonna take that amazing coconut cream at the top and use it like frying oil .

I mean this is basically just pure coconut oil and a lot of people try to buy the stuff separately .

You don't need to .

Every can has some .

Anytime you see a good coconut milk from Thailand , you're good to go cause you have at least 13% to 19% coconut oil , not trying to get too nerdy , but I just did whatever .

Um So I'm using the coconut cream like oil .

So the paste goes right in .

I want to work this together similar to a roux .

The coconut oil is the fat which helps really kind of fry and caramelize the paste .

It smells amazing .

It does because what paste is basically is all these fresh herbs that we use in Thai cooking , right ?

Thai lime leaves , garlic shallots , chilies .

People are like , how long do I cook this curry paste ?

Because I don't know if I'm gonna burn it .

I don't know if I'm cooking it enough .

It should look like really tight peanut butter and you want to see a little bit of oil coming out of it .

So that's about the consistency .

It should be a nice kind of paste .

All right .

Ally .

So you're slicing some onions there .

Could I have a few onions because I want to caramelize those .

And then next , you've got a little bit of the Thai lime leaves .

I do .

Can you throw those in , please ?

You got it great .

Because what we're really trying to do is build , build , build flavors in .

But that's one of the things that I love about your pan curry .

It's like a carnival of flavor in your mouth .

A carnival .

I love the flavor carnival .

This is about the time when it looks like it's about to stick to the pan and it looks super dry .

You're gonna add the rest of your coconut milk .

So we should talk about kind of the significance of this dish .

People might not know but ali Tila was an amateur dog trainer .

I'm not trying to out you or anything .

You're outing me as the crazy dog lady .

Yeah .

So I did a uh magazine , a national magazine article .

How to MP curry .

Uh We kind of didn't really know each other that well .

And then uh you made this cool little video with all these call outs of making curry .

Like don't shake the can .

I'm making Penang .

I was really was to flirt with you , wasn't it ?

I really wanted to steal your moves .

Ok .

That's really what it was .

That's all it was .

Well , the truth is I ate your Penang with some and I was like , I have to marry this man immediately .

Well , it all worked out but I mean , I knew immediately it was like lightning to me .

There's a lot of people for free cooking lessons .

All these dudes are gonna make or give me a hard time .

All right .

So let's not get super , too cheese bally .

So you want to do the ja cut ?

See you practice that ja cut .

Well , I'm reducing because all I'm doing here just so , you know , is reducing this curry until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon .

And I'll show you that after the Jay cut cut .

I also used to take classes .

Jet was my cooking instructor .

He was the cute one and was one of them creepy .

You , you were a young professional taking cooking classes .

You were in culinary school .

I just want to be very clear about that .

Ok , please ja cut .

So this was one of the first things that you taught us in the nice schools .

Roll it out .

Right .

Right .

Right .

Coming in from one side , you're rolling around the seed pod .

You did the cut I remember .

All right , I'm gonna give you one more culinary test .

Could you please cut that into bat tot ?

Do you remember what bat I do .

I do .

Bats are basically just uh French fry cuts about a quarter inch wide and they hold up really well in curry , curry is also a really great place to use up any vegetables that are hanging out in your fridge .

So , carrots broccoli .

Uh we're gonna use zucchini today .

It really is one of those dishes that is a , let me clear out all the great that are left over in my fridge .

Do you mind stirring while I cut some chicken ?

Sure .

Awesome .

So , just keep that moving .

Don't let the curry stick to the bottom of the pan and you'll be good to go .

Got it for chicken .

Uh , we're using chicken breast here .

I want to take the chicken breast cut with the grain first into about two inch wide blocks .

And then I'm gonna cut the chicken against the grain into small little tiles .

This really is a great cut for just about any Asian application .

Stir fry a curry like this .

A soup .

This is the right way to cut protein for the Asian kitchen right here .

If you could put the chicken in .

Very nice .

Now again , I'm just simmering this curry for a few reasons .

Uh A to reduce it into a thick sauce and b to really cook that chicken through and that won't take long because we cut it into nice thin planks .

So seasoning alley test .

What are the five Thai flavors ?

Hot sour salty , sweet umami .

Umay .

Wow .

You went with a fancy word .

Yeah .

Savory .

Umami .

Exactly .

So I'm gonna season to all those five flavors .

Wait a follow up .

What's the Thai word for hot sour salty , sweet Umami in perfect balance the same word .

I think of every time I think of you .

Yeah .

Oh God , you're gonna be in front of all these .

Are you seriously ?

All right .

I'm embarrassed now .

Yes .

Yum .

That's exactly correct .

So , I need to season this for the yum and this is how to do it .

First crucial ingredient is fish sauce , which is salty and savory .

Next sugar to balance it out .

I think there's a misconception .

People think Thai food is super sweet .

It's not overly sweet .

Well , what are your tips to people though on when do you have a dish that's achieved flavor balance .

Yeah .

You know what I mean ?

That's a great question .

How about I answer that by I can teach people how to season for like the order of seasoning .

Uh and the order is start with salty because we all know what that flavor profile is , right ?

So taste it OK .

It's salty enough then go to sweet just like I've done because we know what the balance between sweet and salty is and then go to acidic , right ?

And for this , I'm gonna be using tamarin paste , which is a fruit that grows all over the world .

It has a very kind of tangy sour flavor but it has a sweetness to it .

Kind of like plum and the heat comes from the chilies that are in the curry paste already .

And what kind of chilies are those ?

So these are red chilies , they're not crazy hot like Thai chilies , they're probably close to like red Serrano chilies .

So the chicken , as you can see is , uh , pretty much halfway cooked through .

It's opaque on the outside .

I wanna marry my vegetables in .

Now , this could be any combination of vegetables that you like .

Do you wanna help me out and pick a few basil leaves and put that right in there .

This is Thai basil .

You can identify Thai basil because it kind of has purple stem and it smells like licorice .

Isn't that nice ?

Yeah , it has like a , an flavor to it and just , right , just whole and that's it .

I think there's only one way to know if this is delicious .

It's the taste .

It .

So let's get some spoons .

Take a taste .

I'll take a taste .

This is my happy place .

Mm .

I mean , describe it .

Right ?

Creamy from the coconut balance , heat and savoriness .

I mean , and all those spices spiciness .

Oh , so good .

Yeah , it's warm , so , so good .

And here's the way you tell if the curry is actually thick enough , you run a woods spoon through the curry .

You draw a line and if the curry holds its place and doesn't run across that line , it's thick enough to serve .

That's why they call it coats the back of a spoon .

So it's like if you're making a creme on glaze , it's a nape .

Right .

You gotta get and Frenchy on me .

Yes .

Exactly .

Right .

And French you called it a nape and you know , for us mortals that don't make it just coats the back of a spoon .

So this anyway , I can't be as good as you .

Um , and then , you know , I'm gonna add bamboo shoots right to the end because canned bamboo shoots really are already cooked and they really kind of take up the flavor of whatever you cook them in .

So I'm gonna add them right here and that's it .

I'm just making sure the chicken is cooked through .

The sauce .

Looks like it's pulled together .

The vegetables have a good snap to them .

They're not too raw .

I'm gonna bowl it up and let's taste it .

I like to finish with a little bit of the Thai lime leaves .

I think it looks awesome and it gives that real lemony pop .

So fragrant .

Mm All the way through .

Oh Cheers Allie .

I've always wanted to do this on camera .

Let's give that a taste .

Jasmine rice is the way to enjoy Penang curry in my humble opinion .

So a little bit of curry , a little bit of rice .

You could even do it the other way .

We could actually take the rice , smash it into the penang or you can go the other way .

But it's kind of not complete without that kind of fragrant .

Jasmine rice .

So delicious .

Here goes the flavor carnival .

It kind of tastes like everything you love about Thailand , right ?

Cause it's got all those basil notes .

Those savory notes is this creamy coconut and it's non dairy .

I think a lot of people freak out , but it's totally non dairy .

So good .

There it is .

I love it .

I knew I married you for a reason .

Besides the fact that you're just an amazing human being , you gotta stop .

This is gonna get me all embarrassed and stuff .

You can't do this in front of all these people .

Why not ?

Because it makes me embarrassed .

So , Ina's got her engagement chicken but we've got our date worthy marriage making Penang curry .

I hope you enjoy trying this one out for someone that you love .

Tell us what you think right down there and make sure to subscribe .