Make Your Own Red Curry Paste

I make curry quite regularly for dinner because apart from the fact that I love curry, it is also super easy & quick to make as well as pleasing the entire family.

I have never made my own curry paste before as I thought that it might be complex. When I learnt how to make these three curry pastes at my Thai cooking course in Chiang Mai, I realised it is not complex at all, you just need the right ingredients on hand.

When I cook my curries at home I use paste from a jar but now that I know how easy it is to make my own curry paste I am defiantly going to venture into making my own. The flavours are outstanding & so much better than the bought pastes from a jar. In the picture there are three different curry pastes, red, green & panang. I thought that I would share the red curry paste recipe with you first. Note that you will need a mortar to make this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of red chilli’s cut up
2 stalks of lemon grass
1 teaspoon kaffir lime rind
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
1 tablespoon of fresh turmeric
1 tablespoon of fresh shallot
1 teaspoon fresh ginseng
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds

DIRECTIONS

1. Put the coriander seeds in the mortar & find them until they turn into powder
2. Add the chilli & pound until it gets small & broken down
3. When you are pounding the chilli’s be very careful not to get any chilli in your eyes
4. Chop up all the other ingredients into small cubes
5. Add the remaining ingredients into the mortar
6. Pound the entire mixture until the texture is smooth
7. Be warned you do need a bit of elbow grease but on the upside you can get your exercise in for the day while cooking!