Red Curry Paste

I’m a big fan of the fresh taste of a Thai green curry. But the more warmthy flavour of a red curry is nice too. Like my green curry paste, I like to make my own. It’s not that much work, you can do it in advance, double the amounts and freeze it in badges. But the best reason is, you decide yourself what’s in it. I love galangal and corianderroots, so I use a little bit more than the recipe requires for.

RECIPE

10-12 dried red chilies (the long cayenne variety)
5 garlic cloves, chopped
150 grams red onion or shallots, chopped
1 T fresh lemongrass, thinly sliced
6 slices galangal
zest of 1 lime
6-8 coriander root, washed well and chopped
fresh ground white pepper
¼ t shrimp paste or 2 anchovy (from a can)
½ t ground cumin
½ t ground coriander
2 T bright red paprika powder

Soak the chillies in 5T hot water for 1-2 hours.
Put the chillies together with their soaking liquid, into a blender, along with all the remaining ingredients in the order listed. Blend.

Now Madhur Jaffrey suggest you keep pushing everything down with a spatula until you have a smooth paste. But my way is to vigorously shake the blender. I know it wasn’t designed to do that, but it works perfectly for me. Just shake it like a madman and as long as you hear there’s something blending and moving at the bottom it’s fine. If you hear there’s nothing blending, that it’s really stuck or idle, okay, then use the spatula and maybe a little additional water.

This recipe is for about 2-4 servings.

Recipe from: Curry Bible by Madhur Jaffrey.
Also read my recipe for: Green Curry Paste
Nu ook in het Nederlands: Thaise rode curry