Green Curry Paste
By Beverley Glock
Published on 20 February 2014
This recipe is for green curry paste which can be used to make the green chicken curry recipe. You can buy ready made curry pastes but they never taste quite as good as home made. You'll need a pestle and mortar to pound the paste and you should have sufficient paste for about 6 lots of curries, it freezes really well and making the paste is a great stress reliever.
Make sure children stand well back when you dry fry the cumin and coriander seeds but you can still put them in charge of shouting once they start smelling the spices roasting so you know when they're ready to be taken off the heat...Children can help pound just make sure that they don't touch the chillies, if the shallots and chillies make your eyes water wear swimming goggles. It looks daft but it really does the trick. If you make the children wear them as well you'll have a good giggle.If you want to make the paste mild then reduce the amount of chillies by half.Time and servings
50 minsTotal time
45 minsPrep time
5 minsCooking time
Ingredients
- 3 tsp of galangal or ginger
- 1 tbsp of coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp of cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp of white peppercorns
- 30 large green chillies, deseeded and chopped
- 4 lemongrass stalks, deseeded and chopped
- 6 shallots, peeled and chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
- 1 bunch of coriander, bottom 5cm of the stalk only
- 8 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 tbsp of fish sauce
Method
Step 1
Dry fry the coriander and cumin seeds for 3-4 minutes until aromatic - when you smell them they're done.Step 2
Place the coriander, cumin, pepercorns, chillies, lemongrass, shallots, garlic and coriander in a pestle and mortar and pound to a paste. Add the galangal and lime leaves, pound and finally add the fish sauce.Step 3
You will need 1 tablespoon of this paste for each two people when you make the curry. The paste can be refrigerated for up to 1 week and frozen for up to 1 month.