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Chaing Mai Steaks

Beef tenderloin steaks simmered in coconut milk and peanut butter curry sauce, served with kiwi and parsley.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 434 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

Time6 to 8 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, peanut (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the coconut milk

  1. Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add 1 cup packed flaked coconut and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

  2. Process the mixture in a blender at high speed for 1 to 2 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Strain the coconut milk, discarding the coconut solids.

Cook the steaks

  1. Combine flour and salt; dust the beef tenderloin steaks. Shake off excess flour and set aside.

  2. Heat butter and oil in a large heavy frying pan over medium heat until hot.

  3. Add the steaks and pan-fry for 6 to 8 minutes or to the desired degree of doneness, turning once.

  4. Remove the steaks and keep them warm.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the reserved flour to the pan and cook just until browned, stirring constantly.

  2. Stir in the peanut butter and curry powder until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the coconut milk and cook until the sauce comes to a boil and thickens, stirring constantly.

  4. Return the steaks to the pan and turn them to coat with the sauce.

  5. Place the steaks on a heated platter. Garnish with kiwi and parsley sprigs, sprinkle with coconut, and serve.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coconut + peanuttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Coconut + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,642 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beef + peanuttop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).

  5. Coconut + buttertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef tenderloin
Is the main protein, cooked quickly in a hot pan to stay tender.
Flour
Coats the steaks and later thickens the sauce as it cooks briefly in the fat.
Coconut milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce, adding moisture and richness.
Peanut butter
Adds body, nutty flavor and richness to the sauce.
Curry powder
Provides the warm, aromatic spice flavor of the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the pan. Cooking the flour in fat over medium-low heat until browned removes raw starch taste and builds nutty flavor, while constant stirring prevents scorching and lumps before the liquid is added.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, milk, beef, peanut, butter, flour):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, milk, beef, peanut, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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