Panang Curry (Gaeng Panang)

Thompson traces panang to Persian and Malay culinary influence reaching Siam through maritime trading routes — the peanuts in the paste and the relatively thick, reduced preparation share characteristics with Malay-influenced southern Thai preparations. [VERIFY: Thompson's specific etymology for 'Panang' — connection to Penang disputed]

A thick, reduced curry with a rich, slightly dry coconut cream sauce that clings to the protein rather than pooling around it — the most compact and intensely flavoured of the central Thai curries. Panang curry is characterised by its paste's inclusion of roasted peanuts (ground into the paste), its minimal liquid (the finished curry is almost dry, the sauce coating the protein with a thick, rich layer rather than forming a pool), and its characteristic garnish of shredded kaffir lime leaves and thinly sliced fresh chilli laid on the surface at service. It is the most richly concentrated of the classical Thai curry family.