Southern Thai Khua Curry Paste
Krueang Gaeng Khua
For the
Ingredients for one curry
- 6 dried large Thai chili peppers
- 4 dried bird’s eye chilies
- ½ tsp coarse sea salt
- 4 fresh bird’s eye chilies
- 2 stalks lemongrass
- one small turmeric root
- 2-3 shallots
- 3 cloves of garlic
- ½ tsp Thai shrimp paste
Preparation
First, place all dried chilies in lukewarm water and let them soak for a quarter of an hour. In the meantime, peel and finely chop the shallots and garlic.
Then, remove the dry ends and outer layer from the lemongrass and cut the rest into thin rings. The fresh chili peppers also need to be cut into rings.
Finally, cut the turmeric root into thin slices, trying to avoid staining any furnishings yellow. By the way, turmeric-stained fingers can be cleaned reasonably well with vinegar.
After the chilies have softened, cut them into coarse pieces and pound them in a mortar with the sea salt. Now, gradually add all other ingredients in the order listed. After about ten minutes of vigorous pounding, a uniform paste should have formed.
The finished Southern Thai Khua curry paste can be used immediately, but it also keeps in the refrigerator for one to two days. You can, of course, also prepare a larger quantity of the paste and freeze it in portions.
