Red Curry Paste

The Insatiable Foodie | July 14, 2011 | 16,856 Comments

Not everyone’s a fan of curry, but I am. A huge fan I might add. If you look up curry on Wikipedia, it’ll take you to a page where they list the different types of curries based on the country of origin. Since curry is Asian, that particular list on Wikipedia has almost all but one or two Asian countries. To simplify things, in my opinion, there are only two major types of curry based on taste. One type of curry is the type you’d find in dishes from the Indian sub-continent, while the other type of curry you’d find in South East Asian cuisines. I didn’t take the Japanese curry into account because personally I don’t think you can call that stuff curry. It looks like curry, but tastes like curry without all the spices that makes a curry, well, curry.

For those of you who really can’t tell the difference between the two types of curry, it’s in fact pretty simple. Curries from South East Asian countries tend to use some sort of fermented shrimp paste. The shrimp paste gives the curry its’ signature pungent South East Asian taste. This particular red curry paste that I’m sharing with you today uses shrimp paste, but I’m not too sure whether it’s Thai, Indonesian or Malay curry – which is why I’m simply calling it red curry paste. I’m trying to remember if my mom used to make any kind of curry dish for dinner when I was a kid, but I don’t think she did. I can remember having some sort of curry similar to this regularly when I was a kid, but that was in some Thai restaurant my parents used to take me to on quite a few Saturday nights. I never used to like those nights where the whole family would go out for dinner but I never really knew why. All I know is that now I’m eternally grateful that they did, because otherwise I’d be here talking to you about a Big Mac. Wouldn’t make a very interesting read, unless of course you’re Ronald McDonald.

Now remember, this recipe is actually for the curry paste only and not the finished dish. That’ll be another post, maybe the next one. What’s so great about this curry paste is that it’s so versatile. You can use it as a base for curry dishes (with or without coconut milk), as a marinade, or even as a seasoning to liven other recipes up. The curry paste also freezes well. It’ll last more than a month in the freezer, and even longer if you use a vacuum pack bag. Just make sure you give it sometime to thaw out properly before using, instead of popping it into the microwave straight from the freezer.

Red Curry Paste Recipe

Ingredients:

20g Garlic, crushed

10g Shallots, crushed

10g Lemon grass (lower part only), chopped

5g Ginger, chopped

5g Turmeric, chopped

5g Galangal, chopped

10 Large dried red chilies, soaked 15 minutes in water then finely chopped

5 Large fresh chilies, finely chopped

1 Tsp Coriander powder

1 Tbsp Shrimp paste

½ Tsp Salt

½ Tsp Pepper

1 Tsp Sugar

2 Tbsp Water (optional)

Method:

Put all the ingredients in a mortar and grind with a pestle until the paste is smooth. Add the water only if the paste is too dry. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle (or too lazy to use one), you can use a blender instead.

Tags: asian, cooking basics, curry, Recipes