Panang Curry Chicken Wing Stew

Coconut curry dishes are surprisingly easy and fast to make when prepared curry paste is used. The sequence for cooking these curry dishes is to stir fry the prepared curry paste, add coconut milk (and some water), boil, add the meat, cook, add the vegetables, cook, and serve. I’ve started to use Maesri brand curry paste rather than the Mae Ploy brand. While both of these prepared curry pastes come in a multitude of flavors, are tasty, and available at your local Asian market, the Maesri brand curry paste comes in 4 oz. (114 g.) cans, while the Mae Ploy brand comes in 14 oz. (400 g.) plastic tubs. What would happen is that I would use a small portion of the Mae Ploy curry paste in a dish and then the plastic tub would sit in my refrigerator for a long time until I made the next curry dish. The Maesri brand can is one use, so there’s no need to save the excess in the refrigerator and its “fresh” out of the can. So unless you make curry dishes often or in huge quantities, using the small cans for one dish is the way to go.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 lb.	1 kg.	Chicken wings (鷄翼, gai1 jik6), separated into pieces
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
1 lb.	500 g.	Carrots (紅蘿蔔, hung4 lo4 baak6), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal
1 lb.	500 g.	Zucchini (意大利青瓜, ji3 daai6 lei6 ceng1 gwaa1), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal
6 oz.	170 g.	One package fresh cloud ear fungus (雲耳, wan4 ji5)
		Oil for cooking

Sauce Ingredients

4 oz.	114 g.	One can Maesri brand Panang curry paste or equivalent
14 oz.	400 ml.	One can coconut milk
4 oz.	115 ml.	Water to wash out the coconut milk can

 

Equipment

6 qt.	5.7 L.	Dutch oven

 

Preparation Instructions

Maesri Brand Panang Curry Paste

1. Prepare the chicken wings by separating the wing into its individual pieces. Marinate the chicken in a covered container for at least one hour or overnight in the refrigerator with the ginger and garlic crushed in a garlic press, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil. If marinating the chicken overnight, take it out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking.
2. Wash and cut the carrots and zucchini into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal.
3. Wash the fresh cloud ear fungus. If using dried cloud ear fungus, soak in boiling water for at least one hour. Dried cloud ear fungus expands greatly in volume when rehydrated, so use less dried fungus than fresh.
4. Open the Panang curry paste and coconut milk cans.

Cooking Instructions

1. Add oil to a Dutch oven and heat over medium- to medium-high heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the Panang curry paste to the Dutch oven and stir fry. Add the coconut milk to the Dutch oven, wash out the coconut milk can with water, and add the water to the Dutch oven. Increase the heat to high, bringing the mixture in the Dutch oven to a boil. Don’t use too much water or it will dilute the curry-coconut mixture.
2. Add the chicken wing pieces to the Dutch oven. When the mixture comes to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Uncover the Dutch oven, and add the carrots, zucchini, and cloud ear fungus to the Dutch oven. Increase the heat to high to bring the mixture to a boil and cover before reducing the heat to low to simmer for another 5 minutes.
4. Uncover the Dutch oven, turn off the heat, put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish, and serve with steamed rice.