Homemade Thai Green Curry Paste
This recipe is a wonderful balance of salty, spicy, sweet and sour with a bitter after note from the fresh basil garnish at the end.
Some ingredients are a bit exotic and maybe not familiar to you at all. Those include Fish Sauce, Shrimp Paste, Lemon Grass and Galangal. These ingredients can be found in the Asian section of most larger supermarkets. Fresh lemon grass is not always available, so when I find it in the produce section, I cut it up and freeze it. If you have trouble finding the spices, they can be found here. But give this a try and they are sure to become pantry favorites.
Of course, you can substitute for some of the ingredients, Ginger stands in for Galangal, and lemon zest for lemon grass. There really is no substitute for fish sauce or shrimp paste, so you can just leave them out or try soy sauce or oyster sauce. After all, this is all about ‘Spicing it YOUR Way”!
Homemade Green Curry Paste
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems chopped
- 4 small green Thai chilies substitute Serrano, or jalapeno
- 1 shallot diced, or 1/4 small purple onion
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 inch piece galangal or ginger minced
- 1 tbsp stalk lemongrass white part sliced, or 3prepared lemongrass
- 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. Shrimp paste
- 1/2 tsp. Ground white or black pepper
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp. Brown sugar
- juice of one lime Add the lime zest too, if you like!
- Coconut milk
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender, a high speed blender such as a Nutribullet works great! Add 3-4 tbsp coconut milk to help ingredients blend together. Add more coconut milk as needed to make a smooth paste. Use right away or store it in the fridge in a glass container for 2-3 days.
- Use this paste to make Green Curry Chicken, or use tofu as your protein for a vegetarian version. I like cutting it into triangles, it makes it seem more fancy!