Last year we traveled to Washington DC on Christmas day. The best part was the airports we not busy so it was actually a nice trip in that sense. Almost all the places that sold food were closed except for this one Chinese place that my husband found. We do not eat Chinese food, just not what we like. The only thing that looked familiar to min was rice and chicken curry. OMG! I am so sure that was not chicken they gave us, it was horrible to say the least. At least my son will not remember that on his first Christmas we had some of the worst food in the world, ever. Never buy Indian food from the Chinese!
We eat a curry at east once a week, I use different recipes and sometimes I use a store-bought curry paste. There is a brand that I like which I have also used as a marinate for my chicken. I do not buy it often because a jar is almost $10. Last week I saw a recipe on Pinch Of Yum for a Thai Curry Paste which looked so easy and the ingredients would be half the price what I pay for so I went right ahead and made the paste.
I could not find the Thai peppers as in the original recipe so I used serrano peppers instead. I kept everything else the same here is the recipe from Pinch Of Yum:
Thai Curry Paste
Ingredients
- 4 large shallots
- 4 large heads of garlic not individual cloves - FULL HEADS of garlic
- 1 6- inch piece of fresh ginger
- 5-20 whole dried Thai chili peppers** they're very small and usually found in the spice section
- 1½ tablespoons salt
- 2-3 tablespoons turmeric
- 2-3 tablespoons mild curry powder
- 2 teaspoons roasted ground coriander
- 3 tablespoons lemongrass paste I use Gourmet Garden which they sell at my regular grocery store
- ¼ cup packed cilantro leaves and stems
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
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Prep the aromatics: Peel the shallots - then drizzle with oil and wrap in foil. Peel the ginger and cut into thin slices. Arrange in a single layer, drizzle with oil, and wrap in foil. Pull the outer paper off the garlic. Cut the pointy tops off the heads of garlic so the cloves are partially exposed. Drizzle with oil, and wrap each head of garlic in foil.
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Bake the aromatics: Place all the foil packets on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the ginger (it should be soft), increase the temperature to 400, and roast the shallots and garlic for another 30 minutes until golden brown and very fragrant.
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Soak the chilis: While the aromatics are roasting, pour boiling water over the chili peppers to rehydrate them. Let them soak for 15 minutes. Drain the water.
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Make the paste: Put everything in a food processor or very strong blender. Pulse or puree until the yellow curry paste reaches your desired consistency. The recipe should make about 1½ - 2 cups of curry paste, and I use about ⅓ cup or more in each of my yellow curry recipes, so usually I can get 4-5 batches of curry out of this yellow curry paste recipe. The paste keeps for about a week in the fridge and it freezes well!
NOTES
**The number of peppers will either make your curry paste mild or hot.
chilis = very mild
chilis = medium
chilis = medium hot
chilis = HOT
The measurements for the spices can be played with a little bit, which is why the curry and turmeric are written as 2-3 tablespoons. I usually go for MORE spice, but if you don't have enough of one thing, try adding a little more of something else to compensate. It's definitely somewhat of a flexible recipe.
Bjork and both really like spicy food, but the 20 chili version was hard for us to eat. 10 chili peppers (medium) was my preferred amount - yum! I highly recommend starting with just a few if you aren't ready for the heat. 🙂
For a more traditional Thai yellow curry paste that features a few harder-to-find but true to actual curry ingredients, check out THIS RECIPE.
You can use less salt (1½ tablespoons seems like a lot, I know), but you will likely need to add it in later when you make it into a curry - just remember this is divded into at least 4 batches with 4-6 servings per batch, so that salt gets distributed out pretty well.
I immediately used the paste to make my chicken curry. Most recipes use chicken breast but I use chicken thighs because they are half the price.
Thai Chicken curry
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 lb deboned and cubed chicken thighs
- 3 - 4 tablespoons Thai curry paste
- 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
- 3/4 cup coconut oil
Instructions
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Saute onion in oil.
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Add chicken and cook until lightly browned.
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Stir in curry paste, cook for one minute.
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Add tomatoes and coconut milk.
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Simmer uncovered until the chicken is cooked about twenty five minutes.
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Serve hot.
