Sunday 12 February 2012

A glut of chillies

Thai green curry paste
I love growing chillies.  They are such pretty plants and chillies can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours and intensities.  The trouble is you can only eat so much chilli  in one go so preserving is essential.

Today I decided to preserve some of the glut in Thai curry pastes. These recipes are adapted from Authentic Recipes from Thailand a book I bought  in Bangkok airport after a holiday of great eating and good fortune. It was the year of the tsunami and we were very fortunate to have left the coast the day before it struck. 


 Red or Green Thai curry paste

1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
5-10  red or green chillies* (I used my very long cayenne for the green paste)
3 tablespoons  sliced shallots
3 cloves garlic (8 cloves for the red paste)
1 teaspoon galangal (get a young one and cut some very thin slices)
1 tablespoon lemongrass
1/2 teaspoon lime* rind (the recipe uses kaffir lime)
1 tablespoon coriander root
5 black peppercorns (10 for the red paste)
1 teaspoon dried shrimp paste

Thai red curry paste
Dry fry the coriander and cumin seed then grind. Add the rest of the ingredients except shrimp paste in a mortar and pestle and mash. You could use a blender but I think it is better in the mortar. I like mine a little textured or maybe I am just lazy.  When it is a texture you like, add shrimp paste.  I spoon it into an icecube frame and freeze and pop out into another container to store. I use two cubes each time I make a red or green Thai curry or stirfry with red curry paste.

Anyone got any good chilli preserving methods?  Particularly for green chillies?

5 comments:

  1. I like the look of this paste. I just need to convince the kids that they like Thai curries - my 5 year old struggles with the coconut milk. Very annoying as I love them, but I will preservere.

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    Replies
    1. If they don't like coconut milk but they dont mind a little hot and spicy then you could make one of my fav things - do a stir fry with a cube of red curry paste (or two). I never thought of stir frying with curry paste but the same cookbook has a couple of recipes that use it.

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  2. OK, let's see if this works...

    I also made a cucumber salad this week (although I had to buy my cukes, which I'm sure weren't nearly as god as yours). If you haven't made this recipe yet, it's terrific on a hot day (if we ever get another hot day!): Thai cucumber salad. Peel, seed and chop some cukes. Make a sauce with equal amounts of fish sauce, lime juice and grated palm sugar. Add some chopped garlic and chili peppers, then a whole lot of chopped cilantro (oops- coriander!). Mint's good too. Enjoy! :-)
    T

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay, It worked I just moderaste the entries in case someone writes something rude or something Thanks Terry, this sounds yummy, I have more cukes in the fridge so will try it !

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  3. You can freeze chillies

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