Thai Red Curry Paste - Thai AFF #3

For this month's AFF, It's Thailand. The land of smiles.

Thailand is famous for its curries of which is different from Indian curries that uses a lot of spices. Instead Thai curries uses herbs and aromatics as well on top of some spices.

The Thais have red, yellow and green colours for their curries, differentiated by the colours of the ingredients. The use is also different for each type. Red curry is one of most versatile curry pastes and can be used for meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables.

Red curry paste is the basic ingredient for making Thai Red Curry.

Most recipes for thai red curry paste stop at the raw form.. and most curry recipes uses packed sauces direct intro gravy without any sauteing and oil will seep from it. So it seems there is a gap to be filled. I think the sauces in the jar aren't raw.

In my personal opinion.... I did the extra step of cooking the paste so that when I add it direct into my curries when I cook it, oil will float up. But I think I used too little oil and not much floated up when I used it to cook my curry. As you can see, my cooked paste is rather dry. I suggest you double the oil so that you will have more pretty red oil in your curry later.

Thai Red Curry Paste
Reference: Thai Table and Youtube 

10 dried red chillies, seeds removed and soaked
1 inch galangal (15gm cleaned)
2 lemongrass (use only 3 inches from the base)
5 shallots (60gm)
1 bulb garlic (30gm)
2 pcs coriander root
1 tsp shrimp paste/belacan
1 Tbsp kaffir lime zest
1 heaped tsp salt

1/4 cup oil (I suggest half a cup)

1. Grind galangal, lemongrass and coriander root until fine. Then add in the rest of the ingredients and grind until fine.
2. Heat wok/pan and put in oil. Put in the paste and saute until it looks glossy and oil starts to seep out.
3. Keep in sealed jars and keep chilled until use. (any longer than 2 week, it's best to keep frozen)

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Thailand Month, 

hosted by Lena of Frozen Wings