Gorgeously fragrant and spicy, this typical Malay curry paste is the perfect platform for meat, chicken or fish. Just whack in a tin of coconut cream and the ingredients of your choice and you have a healthy and traditional curry with absolutely nothing artificial added. It doesn’t get much better my friends!
Prep time: 20 Minutes $ Low Budget
Makes approximately 2 cups of paste (suitable for freezing)
20 dried red chillies, soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes
1/2 cup of roasted peanuts
6 Kaffir lime leaves, shredded
2 lemon grass stalks, roughly chopped (white part only)
5cm piece of galangal or ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
6 french eschallots, peeled and roughly chopped
6 coriander roots and stems, thoroughly rinsed and chopped
11/2 tbs of ground cumin
1 tbs of ground coriander
4 tbs of fish sauce
1/4 cup of peanut oil (vegetable or canola if allergic)
Remove the chillies from the boiling water and wearing a pair of gloves (or do not rub your eyes for a while afterwards!), cut off the tops and remove most of the seeds. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a nice fine paste adding a little more oil if the mixture becomes a little stiff. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides so that you are left with a nice, consistently even paste. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week or freeze in zip lock bags for later use. This amount of paste will make 2-3 curries depending on how spicy you like it!