Three recipes to make your curry pastes (red, yellow and green)

Curry paste serves to flavor multiple dishes of Asian cuisine. Conventional commercial products are loaded with additives and sugars. We teach you how to prepare yours and bring the authentic Asian smell and flavor to your table.

You can make a delicious curry paste without the artificial flavor enhancers, preservatives, or large amounts of sugar often found in conventional products. Your pasta will also be free of the animal-based ingredients sometimes found in commercial curries.

Aromatic curry paste made with healthy chili peppers traditionally comes from Thai cuisine and forms the basis of many soups and other Asian dishes. Red, yellow and green curry pastes differ mainly by their degree of spiciness. You can always adapt them to your own tolerance to spiciness through the number and selection of chili varieties.

MAKE RED CURRY PASTE YOURSELF

Red curry paste is the most popular paste in Thai cuisine. It is quite spicy and is in terms of degree of intensity is between mild yellow and very spicy green.

Ingredients:

• 100 g red chili peppers, preferably small pods
• 2-3 shallots or 1 red onion
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 2 lemongrass stems
• 1 piece of galangal, about 3 cm long (ginger can also be used as an alternative)
• The organic half-lime peel, if possible, without the white skin (or the juice of half a lemon)
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds or half a teaspoon cilantro powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or half a teaspoon ground caraway seed
• 2 coriander stalks with roots or 8 coriander stalks, if none with roots available
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper (or 5-6 peppercorns)

Preparation:

1. Clean the chilies, cut them in half and optionally remove the seeds. Cut the pods into pieces and immerse the dry pods (if used) in some water for 15-20 minutes.
2. Peel and chop the onion, garlic and galangal. Remove the hard parts and skin from the lemongrass stems, wash the stems and cut them into hoops. Cut the skin of the lime into thin strips. Wash and chop the cilantro.
3. Toast coriander seeds, cumin seeds and, if necessary, peppercorns in a skillet over medium heat without oil. Stir so they don’t burn. Remove from the pan as soon as they begin to give off their aroma.
4. In a mortar, first crush the chili pieces (soaked) along with the salt until you get a smooth paste. The pasta can also be prepared in a multiplier or a minipimer.
5. Add the chopped ingredients to the chili paste one after the other and crush or mix each before adding the next ingredient. Finally, add the spices.

To obtain a particularly aromatic curry paste, the ingredients are crushed one after another in a mortar. It can take up to 20 minutes for all the ingredients to combine to form a buttery paste. The somewhat arduous work is definitely worth it, because the spice paste gives off its intense aroma even during preparation.

Curry paste can also be made in a multicopper or in a kitchen mixer. In that case it may be necessary to add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to the crushed dough to make it easier to mix.

Stored in a germ-free screw jar and covered with a little neutral vegetable oil, red curry paste can be kept in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. In addition, it can be frozen in portions such as ice cubes and, therefore, used for several months.

MAKE YELLOW CURRY PASTE YOURSELF

Yellow curry paste is the mildest. The main difference is their color and the different spices that are used.

Ingredients:

• 30 g dried red chili peppers, preferably long pods
• 3 shallots or 1 red onion
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 3 lemongrass stems
• 1 piece of galangal or ginger, about 4 cm long
• 1 piece of turmeric, about 2-3 cm long or 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or half a teaspoon ground caraway seed
• 1/<> teaspoon coriander seeds or <> pinch cilantro powder
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed cardamom pods
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Yellow curry paste is prepared in the same order as red paste. Prepare turmeric root along with galangal or ginger in step 2, add the crushed cardamom pods and remaining spices in step 5.

MAKE GREEN CURRY YOURSELF

The spiciest of all curry pastes is green. It is made from small Thai peppers particularly spicy (bird eye chillies), which can also be replaced by less spicy peppers.

Ingredients:

• 7-10 small Thai green chiles (replace some with green chili peppers if desired)
• 2 shallots or half a red onion
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 2 lemongrass stems
• 1 piece of galangal or ginger, about 2 cm long
• The skin of a quarter of organic lime, if possible, without white skin (alternatively 2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice)
• 1 cilantro stalk, including coriander root (optionally 4 coriander stalks, if none with roots are available)
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds or half a teaspoon cilantro powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or half a teaspoon ground caraway seed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper (pimpled or ground)

Green curry paste is also made in the same order as the other Thai pastes. Keep in mind that after cutting the chili peppers the hands should be washed immediately with liquid detergent so that nothing spicy accidentally enters the eyes or areas of sensitive skin.