28.6.10

Thai Curry Paste-



We love eating Thai and Indian curries. Dr. J is a bit obsessed with getting the spices down to a science and even has his own coffee grinder JUST for spices.
I find it extremely tedious to make curry pastes as they require a lot of ingredients and a ton of prep work. Not exactly a week night meal.
So here is our secret for having amazing homemade Thai meals, often.
We make a big batch (in this case quadrupling the recipe) and freeze it in tasty balls.
With the paste pre-made it is easy to sauté some veggies, add some tofu, shrimp, chicken or beef- add a can of coconut milk, a dash of cane sugar, hot sauce to taste and fresh herbs to garnish.
Here is the recipe to make a quadruple batch of:

Curry Paste
16 Red Chillies (we use dried and soak them in hot water for ten minutes)
16 cloves of garlic
4 tsp Cumin
4 tsp Coriander
8 stalks of Lemon Grass
3 shallots
2 thumbs sized pieces of ginger
2 thumb sized pieces of galangal (aka- white ginger)
4 tsp of shrimp paste
2 limes juiced with zest
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp pepper
Splash of Fish sauce
8 tablespoons Ketchup or tomato paste (we use Ketchup)
Cilantro to taste- we add a ton because we love it
All of these ingredient can be found at your Asian market.
Here are the dried peppers soaking (the bowl is made by MY NAME IS MUDD)

A quick, dry, pan fry gives the coriander and cumin a nice toasty taste

Lemon grass

Galangal Ginger- has a lovely sent- a bit earthy, piney, and pungent citrusy. It is a fantastic compliment to standard ginger. Also known as ‘white ginger’ here in North America it is much harder to grate or cut. This is what it looks like in its natural root state, peeled and grated. Apparently mixing it with lime juice in a tonic makes it work as an aphrodisiac.

Here you can see the difference in color of the two gingers in the bowl-

Add everything all together into a food processor and make it into a paste.
Although this picture doesn't make our curry balls look appetizing- the final results are tasty.

I imagine they can stay frozen for a few months- I wouldn't know though because we use them up quickly!

18 comments:

Pat Tillett said...

That's a great idea! Thanks for the recipe...

Lenore @ Lather. Write. Repeat. said...

Mmmm, I love thai curry as well! But I'm lazy and I buy the jarred paste. This looks much more delicious. Maybe one day I will take the time and do it! I'm sure it's worthwhile.

XO
Lenore

Silver Strands said...

My daughter and I spent a weekend in Cali a little while back. Favorite thing: eating thai food!
oxox
Denalee

k said...

thanks for posting this!!! sometimes I make a quick thai recipe but Mark isn't a huge fan of it :( He loves curry though so maybe this will be good!

Leah said...

Oh I LOVE curry! Must try this, looks so so yummy!

drollgirl said...

yum! i love me some curry! must try this!

essbesee said...

delicious. i've never heard of that kind of ginger, good to know. and i am still lovin' that bowl, too.

Lady Grey said...

Seriously, that is a brilliant idea!!

Unknown said...

thank you thank you thank you for this post! My husband and I LOVE Thai and Indian food & have tried (on multiple occasions) to make curry dishes (usually from random internet recipes) and they NEVER turn out! I will definitely be trying this :)

ps. thanks for your nice comment! Yes, Detroit is a great city, I'm so happy more people are becoming passionate about making a positive change.

and flowers pick themselves said...

i love the bowl with the writing inside! so cool.

:)

xo Alison

ilovemyhouse said...

Oh, i think i MUST try this! Looks sooo delicious and thanks for the clear instructions. I am afraid i need them. XX

LenoreNeverM♡re said...

I prefer Thai curry than the Indian counterpart...much lighter! Must try this with fresh seafood~YUM*

Unknown said...

This looks a tad intimidating to me, but delicious nonetheless...not to mention the cook book worthy photos!

Earthboys said...

Wonderful recipe, I shall mark this page. I backpacked a few times to Thailand and did a crash cooking course but none of my Thai food tastes as good as when i was there. I'm sure I can learn a lot from you. Thanks Jeanene

Tiffany Kadani said...

See, I refuse to make any Asian cuisine because there are so many ingredients! I love Indian food. Oh yum!

My Little Space said...

The mixture is really really fragrant, isn't it? I love it too. Lucky that we have everything readymade available here. hehe.... Hope you're having a wonderful day.
Cheers, Kristy

Moment to Moment said...

cannot wait to try this, Thanks you for sharing!

Mama Gone Green said...

yummy! We love curries too, so I will have to gear up to give that one a try! thanks!

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