Thai curry is now one of the easiest things to make thanks to the plethora of pastes available on every supermarket shelf. But what really goes into an authentic Thai Massaman curry paste, and how hard is it to make from scratch. I decided to find out. I recently got Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey and adapted my recipe from this wonderful book.
The first great thing about making a paste from scratch, is the mouth-watering spicy aroma that fills your kitchen. It is definitely worth investing in a couple of key spices, you’ll soon find that you have the basics for most Thai and Indian pastes. The recipe below is for Cod and Potato Mussaman Curry and serves two.
Here’s how
Paste
- 1/2 tsp of dried red chilli flakes
- 1 tblesp of coriander seeds
- 1/2 tblesp of cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp of cardamon seeds from green pods
- 1/2 tsp of mace
- 1 and 1/2 tblsp of vegetable oil
- 100g of shallots roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove
- 15g of fresh ginger roughly chopped
- 20g of lemongrass paste / 1 chopped lemongrass stalk
- 4 tblesp of coconut milk
Curry
- 300g of Cod skinned and cut into 1cm chunks (You could use any firm fish such as monkfish, hake or even prawns).
- 300ml of coconut milk
- splash of vegetable oil
- 100g of waxy new potatoes – peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
- 4 shallots peeled, halved and quartered lengthways
- 1 tblsp of fish sauce
- 50 ml of tamarind water
- 1 tsp of sugar
- 30g of roasted peanuts chopped roughly
First, put all your spices for the paste into a frying pan and warm for 5 minutes over a medium heat. They should be just starting to colour and the aromas should be really strong. Place the spices in a pestle and mortar and crush into a fine dust.
Clean your pan with a tissue, put it back on the heat and add the oil. Then put the shallots and garlic into the oil and cook gently for ten to fifteen minutes until golden in colour. Set aside.
Place the lemongrass, ginger and coconut milk into a food processor and add the spices, onion and garlic. Blitz until it forms a smooth paste. That’s your paste made!
In a saucepan heat the oil and add the potato chunks, shallots, coconut milk, fish sauce, curry paste, tamarind water, and sugar. Leave uncovered and simmer gently for 20 –25 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked. Add the fish and cook for a further 5 minutes (time depends on the thickness of your fish chunks).
Serve with a sprinkling of roasted nuts, fresh coriander leaves, a slice of mango and some basmati rice.
What worked?
I really tasted all the spices. It had a great depth of flavour.
It took a bit of time but my kitchen smelled amazing and it was much tastier than your average preservative loaded paste from a jar.
What didn’t work?
I felt like the colour could have been a bit richer, so next time I might add a few strands of saffron or a pinch of tumeric to boost the colour.
