Red Thai Paste

Thai

Taken from

https://www.eatingthaifood.com/thai-red-curry-paste-recipe/

Recipe type: Thai curry paste
Cuisine: Thai
Serves: About 8 – 10 tablespoons of paste

  • 8 dry red spur chiles
  • 1.5 teaspoons ground white (or 3 tsp white pepper corns)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
  • 10–15 small cloves garlic (fewer if large)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh coriander roots
  • 1 tablespoon sliced lemongrass
  • 5 small shallots (Thai shallots are the size of grapes, so it’s about 2 tablespoons worth)
  • 1 tablespoon sliced galangal/ginger
  • 1/2 the peel of 1 kaffir lime
  • 1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Pestle & Mortar (known in Thai as a krok) or just whizz in a blender.

Dry Mix First

  1. Pound 3 teaspoons of white pepper corns to a fine powder.
  2. Add ½ teaspoon of cumin.
  3. Add ½ teaspoon of coriander.
  4. mix it all thoroughly, and then set them aside in a small bowl.

Then pound the other ingredients:

  1. Soak 8 dry spur chilies in water for a few minutes to rehydrate them, then drain and chop them. Add them to the mortar.
  2. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and start pounding for about 5-10 minutes until the chilies are releasing their oils.
  3. About 10-14 cloves of small thai garlic. If the cloves are really big, use about 8.
  4. Chop 5 small thai shallots or just 2 or 3 larger shallots.
  5. Remove outer leaf of Lemongrass and finely chop (around 1 tablespoon)
  6. Finely Chop around 1 tablespoon of fresh corriander roots
  7. Finely chop or grate around 1 tablespoon of ginger/galangal.
  8. Delicatley slice (or grate) the skin from half of the Kafir lime

Pound until you’ve got a buttery, oily, and extremely fragrant Thai red curry paste. (15-30 minutes) or just use a blender but it’s not as good. When your paste is buttery and smooth, go back to your bowl of white pepper and dry spices, and mix it into the paste. You don’t need to pound hard now, just mix it all in and smooth it out.

The final step is to add in just ½ teaspoon of shrimp paste. Pound your paste altogether and make sure the shrimp paste is fully mixed in. (Can use fish sauce if necessary)