‘Nobody expects a veg dish to be this good’: Nat Thaipun’s crowd-pleasing Thai curry sauce

This is an absolute crowd-pleaser – less a strict “recipe” and more a technique you’ll be reaching for all through spring and well into summer. In Thailand, it’s super common to eat raw or lightly blanched veg dipped into rich, curry-style pastes – we call them “dips”.This takes that same delicious idea and turns it into a drizzly, buttery sauce with a nice little kick. It’s built to sit over whatever looks best at the market that week – asparagus is the star today, but it’s just as good with spring beans, sugar snaps, or charred baby zucchini (or big ones – no judgment). Anything with a bit of snap and sweetness holds up to this sauce. Serve it as a killer side, a light main, or bring it to a barbecue – nobody ever expects a veg dish to be this good.Serve the Panang curry butter sauce with asparagus (pictured), green beans, sugar snap peas or baby zucchini.Dion GeorgopoulosIngredients2 bunches asparagus, woody ends trimmed (swap in spring beans or snap peas)1 tbsp neutral oilsea saltFor the Panang curry butter sauce2 tbsp neutral oil250ml (1 cup) coconut cream, unshaken (see note)50g (3 tbsp) store-bought Panang curry paste (see note)125ml (½ cup) vegetable or chicken stock2 tbsp fish sauce1 tbsp brown sugar60g unsalted butter, cold, cubed2 makrut lime leaves, torn or finely chiffonadedjuice of 1 lemonTO GARNISH1 long red chilli, thinly sliced30g (2 tbsp) toasted macadamias or peanuts, crushedfinely grated lemon zestMethodStep 1Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Blanch the asparagus or your chosen vegie for 60-90 seconds until it’s bright green and just tender, then shock in iced water. Strain, pat dry, toss with a little oil and salt and set aside or char on a hot grill pan for extra colour just before serving.Step 2In a saucepan over medium heat, add the oil and coconut cream. Allow the cream to split – it will shift from a smooth, opaque white to a glistening, oily surface with tiny bubbles along the edges. As it cooks off, clear pools of oil will visibly separate and the aroma will become richly fragrant and nutty. Just as it splits, turn the heat down slightly to stop it from spitting, then add the Panang curry paste. Fry, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes until deeply flavoursome, fragrant and the oil turns red.Step 3Pour in the stock, fish sauce and brown sugar. Simmer gently for 5 minutes to let the flavours come together.Step 4Take off the heat. Using a whisk or hand blender, add the cold butter, a few cubes at a time, until the sauce is glossy and emulsified (see below). Don’t let it boil again or it will split.Step 5Stir through the makrut lime leaves and lemon juice. Taste and adjust – it should be rich, a little sweet, salty and bright all at once.Step 6Plate the vegies and generously drizzle with the curry butter sauce. Finish with sliced chilli, crushed nuts of your choice, and a fine grating of lemon zest.Core technique: Emulsifying curry saucesEmulsifying involves forcing two things that don’t naturally want to mix – such as oil and water – to create a smooth, glossy sauce. Instead of building a heavy curry, I let the coconut cream split first, then whisk in cold butter right at the end. If we don’t split the coconut cream properly at the start, it will split later in the sauce. That’s what gives the sauce its velvety mouthfeel, the kind that coats your tongue but never feels too greasy. (It’s important to note that not everything has to be emulsified. Curries are always split in Thailand and that is the beauty in those curries, however in some of my recipes I’ve purposefully emulsified the sauces, merging more traditional European techniques with Thai flavours.)In the method, letting the coconut cream “split” means cooking out the water until the natural oil separates and starts to glisten. It’s a classic South-East Asian cooking technique, not a mistake. You “bloom” your curry paste in that rendered coconut oil to really unlock the flavour, then use what’s left of the coconut solids as the base you build your cold butter into.The best recipes from Australia's leading chefs straight to your inbox.Sign upBecause you are balancing heat and fat the whole time, there is always a small risk the sauce might split – but don’t panic.The sauce should be smooth and emulsified.Dion GeorgopoulosHow to fix a split emulsionA split emulsion almost always comes down to temperature. Either the pan was too hot when the butter went in, or it went in too fast. Here’s how to bring it back. Pull the pan off the heat completely. The residual heat will keep cooking the emulsion apart, so get it off the stove first. Always use a mat or trivet on your bench under your pan.Pour the split sauce into a jug or bowl. This stops it cooking any further and gives you full control when you rebuild it. (Alternatively, you can put your pan straight into a bowl of ice water, cooling it from the bottom.) When you rebuild it, you’re adding it back a little at a time rather than fighting the whole pan at once.Start a fresh base. In a clean pan or the same one wiped and cooled slightly, gently warm 40ml (2 tbsp) of cream, coconut cream or even just water over low heat. For this Panang curry butter sauce, use coconut cream, but this trick is worth remembering for any butter or cream sauce you’ve split, curry or not. (Note: Sometimes all it takes is to cool the entire base down, and re-whisk it with a whisk or an immersion blender. This solution depends on how much time you’ve got.) Remove the pan from the heat, and gradually whisk the split sauce back into the fresh base, a spoonful at a time, whisking or blending constantly. You are rebuilding the emulsion around a small, stable amount of liquid rather than fighting the whole batch at once. If it starts seizing up or cooling too fast to loosen, put the pan back over the lowest possible heat for a few seconds, whisk, then pull it off again. Once it comes back together and looks glossy, you can slowly stream in the remaining sauce if there’s more to incorporate. Recipe notes Coconut cream: Skip the shake! You want the rich, thick cream that settles at the top, so let the can sit so it’s easy to scoop out. If it’s had a bit of a bump around in the pantry or shopping bag, pop it in the fridge for 15–20 minutes to help it separate faster. Panang curry paste: Standard store-bought Panang paste is ideal for this recipe – Mae Ploy is my top pick if you’re looking for a specific recommendation. That said, if you fancy making your own from scratch, check out the recipe in my cookbook. It’s genuinely fun, far easier than most people expect, and there’s something about pounding your own paste with a mortar and pestle that makes you fall even more in love with the dish.