Thai Green Curry Paste

A little bit of this and a little bit of that....still trying to recreate the blue elephant magic. But this comes close. It's a hybrid of a few tips from hungry hippies and this Taste.com recipe (pictured below). With, of course, some little lush fiddling.

Enjoy!

        1 tsp coriander seeds

        1 tsp cumin seeds

         6 white peppercorns or use white pepper – ½ tsp

         2 tsp shrimp paste (see note) (belacan)

         1/4 tsp ground turmeric

         6-7 coriander roots + stalks, thoroughly cleaned and scraped, roughly chopped

          2-3 lemongrass stems (pale part only), roughly chopped

         4-5cm piece of galangal peeled and chopped in half

         8-10 small green or 3 long green chillies, (or a mix), seeds removed and chopped

         4 kaffir lime leaves (see note), spine removed, roughly chopped,

plus zest of 2 kaffir limes or extra leaves

         4 Asian red eschalots, roughly chopped

         5-6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

         For at the end: 30g vegetable oil

The variation in ingredient amounts is because of the possible size variation.

Method

1.   Wrap shrimp paste in a square of foil. Toast with coriander and cumin seeds with the pepper for 6 mins 100 degrees, reverse speed 2. Remove the foil wrapped shrimp paste and set aside.

2.   Cool seeds slightly. Grind for 2 mins speed 10.

3.   Add remaining ingredients, including the shrimp paste removed from foil, but not the oil yet. Blend to a paste by mincing for 30 secs speed 8-9. Stop every 10 seconds and scrape down. Blend on speed 4 while you allow the oil to drip through the MC.

4.   Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Or flatten in a zip lock bag and freeze. Break off 2-3 tablespoons worth when you are making your curries.

To be honest, I had it all blending at speed 7 while I kept chopping and adding ingredients, then turned it up to speed 9 at the end. I did a double quantity and the TM pureed that amount really well.