This recipe may have taken a while to get right but it was really worthwhile the patience.  This is everything I want a Penang to be, spicy, nutty, creamy and just full of Thai flavours.

Ingredients
4 x steaks of your choice
1 garlic clove, finely chopped or minced
7 tbsp penang paste
1 tsp turmeric
400ml coconut cream
1½ tbsp palm Sugar
2 tbsp fish Sauce
1 lime, juiced
250g jasmin rice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp Thai basil, finely sliced

Ingredients for paste
60g peanuts
6 dried long red chillies
35g shallots, roughly chopped
10g garlic, roughly chopped
½ tsp salt
1½ tbsp galangal paste
1 tbsp lemongrass
1 tsp cumin 
1 tsp coriander 
1 kaffir lime leaf
1 tsp shrimp paste

Method
Start by putting the dried chillies into a dry frying pan and cook for a minute or so until fragrant.  Put the chillies into a bowl and cover with boiling water (I use around 150ml or so of water).  Soak for 20 - 30 minutes.

Put the peanuts into the dry frying pan and cook for 5-7 minutes until golden. Take care here, they turn very dark all of a sudden so once you see the oil coming out make sure you keep turning them over.

Put the shallots, garlic, lemongrass and chilli into a food processor and pulse until chopped.  Add the peanuts and pulse again until also chopped and mixed through.  Add the rest of the paste ingredients along with 2½ tbsp of the chilli water.  Blitz until smooth. Depending on your shallots, you might find you need nearer to 4 tbsps of the chilli water.

You can pound the ingredients in a mortar and pestle if you prefer and if you do, pound before adding the water.  Once everything has been broken down and paste like, add the water to slacken the paste.

Put a large pan of water on to boil and put a good pinch of salt flakes into the water.

To make the curry heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok and add the curry paste, garlic and turmeric and fry for a few minutes until fragrant, stirring all the time.

Add the coconut cream and stir through until thoroughly mixed through  Add the sugar, the fish sauce and the lime juice and stir through, add the lime leaves and cook over a medium high heat for 10 minutes, you want this to bubble enough that it starts to thicken.

While your sauce is reducing cook your rice and steak.  When the water is boiling, add your rice, stir and reduce the heat a little so it is simmering well.  This will take around 10 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, season your steak with salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper.  Put 1 tbsp of oil into a large frying pan and heat on medium high until really very hot.  Add your steak and leave the steak and pan alone for around 3-4 minutes.  Season just before turning over the steak.  This should help the steak get a really good crust on it.  Cook the steak for another 3-4 minutes for medium rare although this will depend on the thickness, if your steak is thick you might need to cook it for a few extra minutes.

Taste the sauce, it should be creamy and spicy and balanced and not taste too salty or acidic or sweet, if any one flavour is too prominent then adjust with fish sauce (if it is salty), lime juice if too sweet or sugar if too acidic.  Add the basil to the sauce, stir through and serve.