The SO mentioned she really liked the salmon and pumpkin red curry with coconut milk she used to eat in Coos Bay. I’d like to make some; but I’ve never eaten it, let alone attempted to make it. I found this recipe, which calls for yellow curry but says you can use red curry. The SO didn’t mention shrimp, but this recipe has them.
Has anyone tried this recipe? Does anyone make salmon and pumpkin red curry with coconut milk and have a recipe they can share?
I don’t see anything wrong with this recipe–it’d be good to try, and your wife should like it, even if it’s not exactly like what she used to have. If you don’t want to add shrimp, leave them out, in cooking you can shake things up and make them your own. (Baking is a different story.)
Just be sure to use actual curry paste, preferably from an Asian grocers. Do not use “curry” powder from the grocery store.
The one tip I’d give is that the fish or prawns should go in at the very end, a ten minute poach in the residual heat of the boiling curry sauce is all that is needed to cook it through.
I didn’t look for this thread earlier, and I found a different recipe that calls for curry powder. Then I found this recipe that specifies curry paste. I think I’ll try that one.
One of the SO’s patients has family in Alaska, and she gave her a couple of pounds of salmon they caught. I cut the fish section in half, cubed it, took out as many bones as I could find, cut off the skin, and wound up with just under a pound of fish. I’ll have to go to the store for the curry paste and other things.
It turned out well. I used butternut squash, and there was a bunch of it so I doubled the recipe. (Still only had a pound of salmon in it though.) Having never had this dish before, I didn’t know what it should taste like. The SO said it was delicious. I thought it was very good, though I forgot Serrano chiles. The SO doesn’t like things too hot, so that was fine with her. (I did throw some red pepper flakes in. I could almost taste them.) She said the salmon was very ‘salmony’, which she liked.
Personally, I like Panaeng curry with beef – and lots of heat. Now that I know how easy coconut red curry is to make (using Thai curry paste), I’ll be making more. (Particularly the beef.) But I’m good with the salmon-and-squash, too. Can’t wait to taste it after it’s been melding in the fridge all night and all day!
Of course I have no idea how the curry in Coos Bay is, but some things–if you can get them fresh–which help a store-bought red curry taste like restaurant curry are fresh galanga root, and to use fresh shallots. You can stir-fry the shallots, and then garlic, and then the paste, with fish sauce, and cook the pumpkin that way on high heat, before throwing in the coconut milk. (While it’s simmering, throw in thin, large slices of galanga.) This infuses the pumpkin (or anything else) with even more flavor. Also fresh thai basil is often combined with red curry (though usually not with yellow curry).
The important thing is that she liked it.
Even better the second day. 
Panang is not supposed to be hot. Use the red curry instead for a hotter profile.
Beef Panang curry is red curry, with coconut milk. Every one I’ve had over the past 30 years has had at least a bit of heat, and can be ordered from ‘no stars’ to ‘farang five star’ to real ‘five star’. I like heat.