HOLY SHIT THIS STUFF IS AMAZING! Packed with flavor. If you want to make thai curry, just throw this stuff in with some coconut milk and you’re done.
This is adapted from the recipe from Hot Thai Kitchen, here: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/green-curry-paste/ , but I couldn’t find some of the ingredients in Chicago so I had to make do. Still, came out fantastic.
There were really only two substitutions I had to make. First of all, it calls for thai basil. Good fucking luck finding that, because I’ve never managed it. From reading around online, the biggest difference between thai basil and italian basil is that the thai variant has much stronger licorice flavors, which is why I have ground anise as an ingredient here. Also, I can’t find galangal anywhere. I’ve never had luck there. But apparently you can get pretty close with ginger and lime juice, so I did that, and I’m happy with the results.
I made a couple other adjustments based on stuff I read online, and in the words of one of my friends, “This slaps.” It’s pretty great.
Ingredients
15 green thai chilis (not a typo, it’s got a kick)
2 teaspoons ground coriander seed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (can substitute black pepper)
1/2 teaspoon ground anise or ground star anise
2 shallots, peeled and chopped
1-2 inches ginger
handful of garlic cloves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 bunch of basil, just the leaves, chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon lime juice (or juice of 2 limes)
2-3 stalks lemongrass, trimmed, you just want to use the good white part at the base
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
1-2 teaspoons fish sauce
Directions
Throw everything in a food processor and blend it into a paste
Couple notes: This is a pretty dry spice paste, so if you’re like me, your food processor won’t work so great because everything sticks to the sides of the bowl. I blended it in 10-15 second increments, then I would take the top off and scrape everything down, then repeat. After 5-10 iterations of this, I ended up with a paste I could use. Eventually things reach a consistency where it starts actually blending, it just takes a couple rounds.
Also, since I used European basil for this, apparently it doesn’t hold up as well during cooking, so when you go to make a dish with this, you can either reserve some of the paste and add it at the end as a finisher, or you can just throw more basil in there a couple minutes before you’re ready to serve. Either way, you’re good to go.
eatbensmeat 