Red Curry Paste

Thai red curry paste has varied range of uses when it comes to Thai cuisine. It’s very simple and easy to make at home provided all the traditional ingredients are available.

The curry paste itself very flavorful with lemongrass, garlic, galangal added to it and the fried red chilies takes care of the spice level. Traditionally, the paste is ground using mortar and pestle and it will take about 20 to 30 minutes to make a fine paste and it will give an unique flavor and taste. But here, I have used blender/mixer to grind the paste and it’s equally good.👍🏻

Ingredients: Dried Red chilies - 16 chopped without seeds Lemograss - 2 tbsp, sliced, reedy outer skin removed (1 large) Galangal - 1 inch sliced Garlic cloves - 5 Coriander Powder - 1 tsp Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp Cilantro 🌿- 2 sprig Red shallots - 3 nos Lime zest / lime juice - 1 tsp Chili soaking water - ¼ cup

Shrimp paste in oil - 1 tbsp (optional)

Step by Step Instructions to proceed with:

Cut the dry red chilies into small pieces and separate all the seeds. The paste will be very spicy if ground along with the seeds as the seeds are the reason for the spice quotient. If needed you can substitute five of the red chilies with byadagi chilies or Kashmiri red chilies for the vibrant red colors.

Transfer the chilies into a bowl and fill it with hot boiling water till they fully immerse.

Soak it for half an hour or an hour to make it soft. This process is important to get a fine paste while grinding.

In a blender add the strained red chilies from water, add all the other ingredients along with lime juice or zest.

Grind it to a fine paste by adding little amount of chili soaked water with it. Store it in a air tight container up to a week in refrigerator.

The red curry paste can be used in many Thai dishes such a Thai red curry, Soups, Satay and dips.

Note:

I usually freeze and store the key ingredients such as lemongrass, galangal after slicing them as they are not used very often ingredients when compared to

others in my kitchen. This makes the process easy to make the curry anytime when needed.