Southern Thai Curry Paste (Kreung Gaeng Ped Dai)
Thai curry pastes are the foundation of Thai cuisine. We’ve already made the three most common pastes: The Red, Green and Yellow Currypaste! But this time we have a recipe that is based in the south of Thailand. The pastes strong yellow color comes from the fresh turmeric and this is not the only difference between this paste and the other Thai curry pastes. On the ingredients list you can find black peppercorns and more shrimp paste as usual. This curry paste is the base for many delicious southern Thai dishes.
4 SERVINGS
Ingredients
50 g dried Thai bird chilis (Prik Haeng)
30 g fresh Thai bird chilis (Prik Kee Noo)
50 g garlic
50 g turmeric root, chopped
25 g shallots, chopped
50 g galangal, chopped
5 stalks lemongrass
½ kaffir lime
2 tbs black peppercorns
½ tbs salt
2 tbs shrimp paste
First take the lemongrass stalks and remove two or three of the outermost layers. Cut the end chop lemongrass into small pieces. (Only use the soft white part of the stalk.)<
Now slice off the outer green bumpy skin of the lime. Cut green skin off about half of the lime.
Use a big mortar and start start pounding the dry Thai chilis and black peppercorns until you have a fine powder. Next add fresh bird chilis and pound until they are broken down. Start adding turmeric, garlic and shallots and keep on pounding.
Now add lemongrass and kaffir lime peel and keep on pounding. Finally add salt and shrimp paste and mix with the paste. At the end you have a creamy and buttery consistency. The paste should be quite smooth.
Notes
You might have asked yourself why we used a mortar for this paste. The reason is that when you grind and bruise all ingredients they slowly release their oils.This means that you get more flavor in the end.
Be aware that turmeric will stain everything you use yellow!
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