So what do you do when you want something but don't have access to it? Figure out a way to make it for yourself. Last night I decided to make a sort of panang curry. I say a "sort of" panang curry because I wasn't following an actual recipe and was kind of winging it. Shocker, right?
On a small saucepan, I combined 3/4 jar of coconut milk, a couple splashes of soy sauce, a heavy hand of Sriracha, and a lot of Penzey's Bangkok Blend: sweet peppers, garlic, ginger, black pepper, galangal, hot peppers, lemongrass, basil and cilantro. If you don't have any of those spices or a blend like I used, you could just buy a Thai red curry paste, which is essentially the same thing. I simmered that on the stove for awhile, while constantly stirring. (I tried to boil it and then simmer it thinking it might be like the peanut sauce and would harden up more, but that only caused a big mess on the stove).
On a separate wok, I had mixed Asian vegetables sauteing with a little bit of olive oil. And I also made brown rice in my rice cooker. My mother was so excited about giving me a rice cooker, so I feel like I need to make good use of it. I don't often make rice, but when I do, I get out the cooker. At first I thought it was kind of useless-- why bother using that when you can just do it on the stove? Then I realized that it's ideal for someone who doesn't really know what they're doing and can't monitor everything at once. Last night I put in the rice, took a shower, made the other food, and then the rice was done. Kind of effortless, if you ask me.
It turned out better than I was expecting, but I might try less coconut milk and the red curry paste instead. The flavor was a bit more subtle than a Thai restaurant's panang curry, but that's understandable. I think the coconut milk really mellows it out. However, if I made this again the exact same way, I would still eat it. It was satisfying, healthy and relatively simple to make. It's definitely food you can feel good about eating.
