Red Curry Paste (krung gaeng deng)
- 1 12 cups dried small red chilies, stemmed,seeded and broken into pieces (about 1 1/2 oz)
- 1 12 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seed
- 18 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 2 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and minced
- 1 tablespoon coriander root, coarsley chopped
- 14 cup galangal, coarsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- 14 cup garlic, chopped
- 14 cup shallot, coarsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 12 teaspoons shrimp paste
- Place chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water.
- Keep chiles submerged for 30 minutes or more.
- Heat a small heavy skillet over medium high heat and dry roast coriander seeds (about 3 minutes), cumin seed and peppercorns (about 1 minute each).
- Use a spice grinder to grind the spices together into a powder.
- Mortar and Pestle Method: Place ground spices in mortar, add lemongrass, coriander roots and galangal and pound to a paste.
- Add lime zest to blend.
- Add garlic, shallots and salt and pound to a smooth paste.
- Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Drain chiles, place in mortar, and pound to a paste.
- When chiles are fairly smooth, add shrimp paste and pound together.
- Add reserved spice paste and pound together.
- Blender Method: Chop coriander roots,galangal,garlic and shallots fairly fine.
- With blender running, add to blender.
- Add spices, lemongrass, lime zest, salt and shrimp paste and continue to blend until you have a paste.
- It may be necessary to stop and scrape down sides of blender.
- Add a bit of chile soaking water if mixture seems very dry.
- Drain chiles, reserving liquid.
- Add to blender with enough soaking liquid to blend into a thick paste.
- Store in refrigerator (should keep a couple of months) or I freeze in an ice cube tray and transfer to a freezer bag when frozen.
red chilies, coriander seeds, cumin, black peppercorns, stalks lemongrass, coriander root, coarsley, lime zest, garlic, shallot, salt, shrimp
Taken from www.food.com/recipe/red-curry-paste-krung-gaeng-deng-55964 (may not work)