Red Curry Paste

I wanted to try a new squid recipe. This is apparently my new favourite thing, trying new squid recipes.

So my mom sent me one from the Thai cookbook I got her for Christmas, Wandee Young’s “Simply Thai Cooking”. I didn’t feel like emailing back to get Wandee’s red curry paste recipe, but since I had all these leftover red chilies I figured I’d just make my own. In comes the internet. I found a bunch of different recipes but most used dried chiles. I had those, but I really wanted to use my fresh chilies. Stubborn, I know.

This is the recipe I settled on:
5 red fresh chilies
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
Half an onion (or one small onion), peeled and roughly chopped
2 stalks of lemongrass, finely chopped (I used 3 stalks bottled in water)
1 tsp lime peel (it’s supposed to be kaffir lime peel, but I don’t have that. I do have kaffir lime leaf, however, so I added that to the curry itself later)
1 tbsp ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 Tbsp gapi (shrimp paste. I skipped this completely. I know, that’s not a good idea, but I didn’t really care too much. It did make a big difference in the end, though. I still didn’t care)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

There’s a reason I don’t like the idea of “settling”. So I’ll never be a diplomat, or a negotiator, or married…there are worse things in life to never be. I settled on this recipe, and it wasn’t great, but it was the best I could do at the time with what I had on hand. In essence, it was a red curry paste of convenience.

Just throw all of this in the blender and turn the blender ‘ON’. If it doesn’t want to blend add a tbsp of water at a time (replacing the lid after each addition…) until it blends nicely. Use a spatula to help push the ingredients down into the bottom, but only when the blender is off. I’ve wrecked too many good spatulas not following my own advice in this area.

For a less blended, chunkier paste, use a large mortar and pestle, but really, life’s too short for this.

You certainly don’t eat red curry paste on its own, so the question is how’d it work out in the squid curry?

To come…