Thai Red Curry Paste

There are many types of Thai red curry. I usually made this simple red curry  that is used for stir-fried and Thai Jungle Curry from the scratch. First, because it tastes much better than the store bought. Second, because it is super simple to make and I always have all the ingredients available in the freezer.

Ingredients: (for 3 tbsp of paste)

~ 2 tbsp sliced lemongrass

~ 1 tbsp sliced galangal

~ 1 tsp fine slice kaffir lime skin

~ 4-5 dried chili 

~ 2 dried sweet chili (or 2 tbsp of sweet paprika powder)

~ 1 tsp salt

~ 1 tbsp shrimp paste

~ 2 large shallot, slice

~ 5 large garlic clove, slice

Directions:

Option 1

First step, add lemongrass, both type of chili, galangal, kaffir skin and salt into a mortar. Pound everything together until fine. 

Second step, add sliced shallot, sliced garlic and shrimp paste to the mortar together with ingredients from step 1. Pound everything together until fine and nicely blended.

Option 2

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend it roughly to almost fine. Then transfer the rough paste to a mortar, and pound it until fine and nicely blended.

Option 3

Add all ingredients into a blender with 2tbsp of water and blend it until smooth.    

Tips and Tricks

🤓 Slice the ingredients finely If you don’t want to spend too much time and energy to pound the ingredients

🤓 If you spicy level is low, replace dried chili with paprika powder.

🤓 I usually put sliced lemongrass, sliced galangal and sliced kaffir skin in a freezer. So I can make fresh chili paste when ever I want. 

🤓 Chili paste can last in a a freezer for months