Jungle Curry Paste

 The hottest of all Thai curries. Recipe for jungle curry to follow.


Ingredients
10-15 dried thai chillies
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 shallot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp shrimp paste
2 tsp chopped lemongrass
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
flavourless oil, such as vegetable or sunflower


Method
Put all the ingredients in a food processor, except for the oil. Slowly add the oil to the mix while the processor is running, enough to bring the rest of the ingredients together to a smooth paste.

Panang Curry Paste

I've written enough curry paste recipes to be merit being lazy about the method for this one. You just whizz all the ingredients together in a food processor, except for the oil, which you add, a little at a time to the blending mix to make a paste. Make it as smooth as you possibly can.

Ingredients

10-15 dried thai chillies, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes

5 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped

2 stalks lemongrass, tough outer stalks removed and chopped up.

8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1 thumb galangal or ginger, peeled and chopped roughly

Handful coriander roots

4 kaffir lime leaves

Pinch ground cloves

Pinch ground white pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp shrimp paste

Flavourless oil, such as vegetable or sunflower oil- enough to make a paste

Massaman Curry Paste

This is another Thai curry paste recipe I have added to my collection. Its good to know a few because there is a lot of overlap in the ingredients, so you won't just buy a big bag of lime leaves and leave them to sit in your freezer for a year before they get thrown out.
Massaman curry is milder than other Thai curries. I used the full 15 dried chillies and the curry I made with it was pretty fiery, so for a more authentic-tasting curry paste use less, unless of course you want the heat.
 Ingredients
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
5 cardomom pods
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
10-15 small red dried chillis
1 tsp salt
1 tsp shrimp past
4 shallots
4 cloves garlic2 sticks lemongrass
3 pods fresh turmeric (optional)
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 thumb ginger or galangal
groundnut or other flavourless oil


Method
Toast the peppercorns, cumin and coriander seeds and cardamom pods in a oil-free frying pan over a medium-high heat until they release their aroma. Remove from the pan immediately so they don't continue to cook, and crush to a fine powder in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder. Peel the garlic and turmeric and chop into large chunks. Peel and roughly chop the shallots. Remove the tough outer layers of the lemongrass, and slice into sections, peel and chop the ginger roughly. Put all the ingredients, except for the oil in a food processor and blend to a paste- you might have to to a lot of stopping and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Pour in some oil in a steady stream to help the mix come together. Keep blending until you have as smooth a paste as possible. Store, covered, in the fridge and use within one month.

Thai Yellow Curry Paste

If I have red and green curry paste recipes here, I had to have a yellow one too. I've taken my time about making one, because I've only just got my chance to use fresh turmeric. When I was living in Leamington Spa, it would appear from time to time in KL Oriental, the Thai Supermarket, but I was always shopping for something else and it would have probably been wasted. There's a huge Oriental supermarket not too far away from where I'm living now, which sells anything you could possibly need for South East Asian cookery, so I now have a ready supplier of the rhizome. The fresh root is far removed from the garishly yellow dried turmeric. Instead of the bitter earth flavours usually associated with turmeric, it smells fresh and almost lavender-like.

After doing some online research, I found lots of recipes do just use dried turmeric, so if you can't get hold of the fresh stuff, maybe just replace it with a teaspoon of dried. My version is an amalgamation of various other yellow curry paste recipes, aiming for something as authentic and delicious as possible. I find that yellow curries are similar red, but milder, so I increased the spices to keep it interesting. The result is quite different from the fiery, fresher green curry.

If you have a decent food processor, this couldn't be simpler. If you have a less than brilliant one, you may need to be a bit more involved by turning off the machine from time to time to scrape down the sides. If you are having trouble, try blending half the ingredients. Once that has liquidised the other half will break down more easily. And if all you have is a pestle and mortar you'll need a few hours and a pair of strong arms.


Ingredients
4 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
6 lime leaves
4 stalks lemongrass, woody parts removed.
5cm galangal, peeled and roughly chopped
6 dried thai chillies
grated zest of 1 lime
2 tsp shrimp paste
small bunch coriander root
4 cloves garlic
50g fresh turmeric, peeled
1 tsp freshly ground coriander
1 tsp freshly ground cumin
1/2 tsp cinammon
pinch ground cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp salt
Vegetable or sunflower oil, for blending, a few tablespoons

Method
Blitz all the ingredients together except for the oil in a food processor. Pour enough oil down the funnel in a steady stream so that you get a smooth paste. Store, covered in the fridge. It should last about a month.

As well as using it to make curry, you can use the paste to make these thai pork burgers.

Thai Green Curry Paste

I'm now on conversation terms with the staff at the nearby Thai supermarket, which make going there even more enjoyable. My last trip I procured the ingredients for a green curry paste, using a recipe by the same man whose red curry paste I have previously written about.  They're both delicious, the red has warmth and heat from the dried chillies and spices, the green is fresher because of the raw birds-eye chillis and large amount of coriander.

12 green Birds Eye (whole)
4 cloves garlic
4 shallots
3-4 stalks lemongrass, tough outer layers removed
1 ½ inch piece of galangal (peeled)
4-6 fresh Kaffir lime leaves depending on size
1 tsp kapee (shrimp paste)
Grated zest of 1 lime
Good pinch of salt
1 tsp black peppercorns
½ bunch coriander, including roots if possible
Generous handful of Thai holy basil  or sweet basil leaves
Groundnut oil

Put all ingredients, except the oil, into your food processor and whiz. Pour in the oil as the mixture whizzes to moisten and allow the whole mixture to come down to a smooth, thick paste (there should be enough oil so that when you transfer the paste to a jar a thin layer of oil comes to the surface and just covers the mixture - this helps it to keep). The paste will keep for some weeks if stored in the fridge.

Thai Red Curry Paste

This recipe comes via a member of the BBC Food Message Board, in turn coming from their friend from Thailand.I made double the quantities, as my Magimix works better with large quantities, and it lasts a few weeks in the fridge and can be frozen in portions.

Ingredients
4-6 dried red chillies
2 small brown onions
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp freshly toasted ground cumin seeds
1 Tblsp freshly toasted ground coriander seeds
2 generous tbsp of chopped coriander, including root if available
1 tsp salt
4-6 fresh Kaffir lime leaves
1 tsp laos (dried galangal) powder
1 tsp serai (dried lemongrass) powder OR stalk Lemongrass, tough outer layers removed then roughly chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp kapee (shrimp paste)
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika
Coconut or groundnut oil

Method
Blend/process all the ingredients except for the oil. You'll almost certainly have to stop and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of your blender a few times before it is blitzed enough. Of course, you could always go down the truly authentic route and use a pestle and mortar, in which case you are a better person than me.  Pour in enough oil down the funnel to make it into a paste. If you a keeping in the fridge, a thin layer of oil on top will help it keep.