Thai Red Curry Paste, a fragrant and delicious paste that makes whipping up a midweek curry a breeze. This recipe is simple to make and with my super amazing storage tip you will always have a supply of homemade fresh curry paste.
Super quick post for me today as my kitchen looks like a bomb exploded, I may possibly not have washed up the breakfast things yet!!! Please don't judge me 😳 I am still without a dishwasher and I love to fill the sink up with water, slide in all the dishes and then let them 'soak'. They have been soaking all day.....should be ready to wash up now 😉
Today I want to share this recipe for Homemade Thai Red Curry Paste, yup another homemade thing....don't leave, remember I do the school run in PJ's!!!! Don't remember? Check it all out here....Oops!!!!
Anyhow! I whipped up a batch of this for a dish I am going to share later in the week. Stay tuned for the most amazing Thai fish dish! Hands down fresh, spicy and gorgeous!!!
I love homemade curry pastes, they have an extra little something that freshens your curry and takes then one step closer to authentic restaurant curries. But I appreciate that they take extra effort and have a rather long ingredient list! So on Thursday I will give you a few little tips on how to perk up a store bought curry paste.
But if you do fancy having a go yourself I think this is a great recipe to start with, the ingredient list might be pretty long but the method is super simple. When I wrote the instructions I had to refrain from writing 1. throw it all in a food processor and let it blitz itself to a pulp. 😉
There are a few ingredients that might not be on your everyday shopping list, but I can buy everything I need in our local supermarket. Go on have a go, whip this up and just don't wipe your eyes until you have given them a very very good scrub!!!! Another yesterday mascara style disaster. (p.s you need to read the homemade post!!!)
And I promised you my storage tip. Freeze the paste in an ice cube tray. Once you have solid curry blocks, pop them out and storage them in a ziplock bag in the deep freeze. Then when you need one, just pop it out and add it to a pan with a touch of fresh garlic and ginger, stir to allow it to defrost and the extra moisture to evaporate, - you have the base for an almost instant fresh tasting curry sauce....fresh from the freezer!!! No more store bought jars! Winner!
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Thai Red Curry Paste
Ingredients
- 6 dry red chillies
- 5 cm /2" piece of ginger (if you can get it galangal is more authentic)
- 12 garlic cloves
- 3 shallots
- 2 fresh red chillies
- 2 lemongrass stalks
- bunch of fresh coriander
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste
- 2 teaspoon finely ground white pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon palm sugar or raw brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon neutral flavour oil
Instructions
- Place the dried chillies in a bowl of warm water and set them aside for 10 minutes.
- Use a teaspoon to scrape the skin from the ginger and cut it into small chunks (the food processor will handle it better)
- Peel the garlic and shallots and place them in the bowl of your food processor along with your ginger.
- Cut the ends off the fresh chillies and add these to the processor.
- Cut the very dry ends off the lemongrass, discard the thick outer leaves and then cut them into small pieces. Add this to the processor.
- Cut the roots off the coriander and give them a quick rinse in cold water. Add the roots to the processor and keep the leaves for finishing your curry.
- Add in the kaffir lime leaves.
- Drain the dried chillies and then add them to your processor.
- Spoon in the shrimp paste and pulse chop until you have a rough paste.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients, the oil and then switch the processor on until you have a smoothish paste.
- Store in the fridge in an airtight jar for up to 3 weeks. (see notes)
- Or spoon it into an ice cube tray and freezer. Once solid pop the curry blocks out and store in a zip lock bag in the freezer 🙂
Shell says
This Thai red curry paste was amazing and just enough spice in it, thanks for sharing it Claire 🙂 I made two more batches, one for my sister and one for me.. it is a blinding success in our family 🙂 x
Claire McEwen says
Oh thank you for coming back to comment Shell! I am sooooo pleased that you and your family loved it 🙂 x
Shell says
Your very welcome Claire, I'm sure I'll be back to comment on more of your lovely recipes 🙂
Barb F says
Hi Claire, this sounds delicious! What kind of chili peppers do you prefer for this? Thai bird chilis or something less hot?
Claire McEwen says
At the moment I am using a stash of chillies that I have in the deep freeze from a friends chilli plant. They are a bit of a gamble as some are mild and some blow your head off!!!!
Usually I would use the small Thai bird chillies, but I do like my food spicy 🙂
Hope that helps
[email protected] says
We are TOTALLY IN SYNC Claire! I love it!!! (On both the curry and dishes soaking ALL DAY in the sink....and I don't have a dishwasher either!!!) So I have to be honest - I am still searching for The Curry Paste. I am loyal to none. Could this be The One?? PS I too freeze curry paste in ice cube trays!!! I think I use ice cube trays for almost everything other than water?????
Claire McEwen says
Ice cube trays rock!!!! I have little squares of curry paste, pesto, herbs in oil, chopped garlic/ginger/lemongrass....the list goes on and on. And yup like you never ice!!! I buy that at the servo 😉
p.s Sure this paste will be THE ONE 😀
Gourmet Getaways says
Haha! DO you know when my older kids were little I drove them to the park and went to get out of the car and released I had slippers on. I thought... oh well I will just be barefoot in the park. Then I realised I was in PJ's and hadn't brushed my hair or put on makeup! I had 3x preschool kids crying as I turned the car around and went home!!
Love the curry paste. Awesome pic. Sometimes you just have to do the food things... regardless of the attire you front the rest of the world wearing 🙂
Great story thanks for sharing
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Claire McEwen says
Haha!! That is hilarious Julie. And I feel your pain having to drive upset kids away from the park. It is bad enough after you have been playing, but before they got a chance to play, I bet it was loud 😉 Those awesome days of baby brain!!!! Although I still get it after 5 years....please tell me it gets better??????
Dorothy Dunton says
Hi Claire! I was just on Nagi's blog - you and Nagi certainly are on the same page! As I posted to her I'll have to make a trip to the "big city" to get Asian ingredients as we live in VERY rural East Tennessee! Don't get me wrong I love where we live, but some things are limited, such as specialty food items! I feel a road trip coming on! 🙂
Claire McEwen says
I know, crazy right. When I saw she had posted a thai curry I couldn't believe it. It has happened before as well. I posted a risotto when she posted a way to use up left-over risotto. And once I had a post that I had written but was waiting to take pictures when we ate dinner later. Her post was all about velveting chicken using a method that a Chinese waiter taught me during me days working in the hotel. I didn't know many people used it!
We are pretty rural here, but we do have a decent supermarket 20 minutes away. If I want speciality ingredients then I have to drive about 40 minutes. But I am sure you agree say living rural has so many advantages. I am currently sat in my study and every now and again I can hear a kangaroo hopping up to the fig tree outside! There is a rustle and a swishing of grass. In the city you might think it was an intruder in your yard! Here I know it is wildlife 🙂
Hope if you do get to the big city, you enjoy making the curry paste 🙂
Marissa says
I've been meaning to try making homemade curry paste for ages and your recipe looks fabulous!
Claire McEwen says
Thank you Marissa, I hope you love it 🙂