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September 16, 2025
Thai Red Curry Paste Recipe
A Thai Crimson Curry Paste recipe that’s doable by any residence prepare dinner and yields a curry that actually is as nice as what you get at the easiest Thai eating places. The DNA of this paste is a recipe by the nice David Thompson, a extremely regarded Thai meals professional.
Like Inexperienced Curry Paste, a home made curry paste yields the freshest, most aromatic curry that you could by no means purchase in a jar. Use this pink curry paste recipe for Thai Crimson Curry, fish truffles or add zing to Thai Fried Rice!
Thai pink curry paste
This Thai Crimson Curry Paste recipe is a RecipeTin Household effort, refined over years with a number of household meals throughout which we critiqued the most recent model.
We’re a troublesome crowd, with regards to one another. We don’t maintain again punches. It’s best to have heard the critiques for the sooner variations. “It lacks complexity!” -> “One thing’s lacking… I don’t know what. One thing’s lacking!“-> “It’s good, nevertheless it’s brown not pink.” -> “Why is it gritty?” “The veggies are too gentle, the chicken’s not tender sufficient” -> “It’s nearly there! Virtually!” ?
Truly, the prepare dinner is normally the hardest critic. We’re fairly exhausting on ourselves!
However lastly, the entire RecipeTin Household approves and we declare this curry paste to be The One. A Thai Crimson Curry Paste that’s completely doable by any residence prepare dinner that makes a Thai Crimson Curry that rivals these served by the perfect Thai eating places in Sydney – and we’re recognized for excellent Thai meals right here!
How Genuine Thai Crimson Curry Paste is made
Really genuine Thai curry pastes require severe effort – the paste is made by grinding the substances in a mortar and pestle and it takes over half-hour. The primary time I attempted it, I used to be cursing like a sailor lower than 10 minutes in, chilli bits flying in all places.
The 2nd time I attempted it, I gave up 3 minutes in and scraped all the things right into a blender.
Blender is the way in which to go. Blender all the way in which!!!
A lot of the bottom for this Thai Crimson Curry Paste is drawn from Chef and restaurant recipes. Little tweaks right here and there to steadiness it to my style to make it as shut as I may to the pink curries served at my favourite Thai eating places.
What goes in Thai Crimson Curry Paste
There’s no denying that you simply’ll most likely require a visit to the Asian grocery retailer to get all of the substances for Thai Crimson Curry Paste, until your native grocery store has an exceptionally effectively stocked Asian part! However all the things needs to be comparatively easy to search out, they’re all fairly frequent Asian substances. Simply present the store keeper these photographs in case you can’t discover them!
The star ingredient in Thai Crimson Curry is dried pink chillies. Chop earlier than hydrating in boiled water to shake the seeds free (seeds = spiciness) and in addition, they hydrate higher = simpler to whizz right into a easy paste.
Utilizing recent pink chillies gained’t produce the identical finish outcome, I attempted. Dried chillies have an earthy flavour, they aren’t loopy spicy and it’s a key flavour base for pink curry.
One other ingredient in Thai Crimson Curry Paste that may be a bit distinctive is galangal. It appears to be like like ginger, however tastes extra citrusy and is more durable to chop. For those who can’t discover it, substitute with ginger and lime zest.
As a result of galangal is so powerful, it may be one of many offenders of grainy curry sauce as a result of client grade blenders and meals processors can’t blitz it finely sufficient in case you simply throw chunks in. In our Crimson Curry Paste readings, we by no means got here throughout a recipe that referred to as for galangal to be grated. However this step is actually price taking if you wish to guarantee your curry is easy, particularly if in case you have an peculiar blender. I’ve a robust Vitamix blender, and I nonetheless grate my galangal.
The opposite key ingredient in Thai Crimson Curry Paste is Shrimp Paste. That is the place our recipe differs from some genuine Thai recipes. Comprised of fermented, dried shrimp (prawns), most Thai recipes use pure shrimp paste which is named Belacan. Usually, it’s offered in dried blocks which is required to be soaked to rehydrate earlier than use.
Nonetheless, we like to make use of Shrimp Paste that is available in a jar with oil and another flavourings added. This can be a tip I picked up from Sujet Saenkham, the chef of the highly regarded Spice I Am Thai eating places in Sydney, and it was our last tweak that took our curry from “it’s nearly there!” to “YES!!!! That is actually restaurant high quality!!!!”. ( <- OK, there could have been a bit of jiggy upon the primary style check).
The primary motive I take advantage of that is for the oil as a result of that is the key factor we seen between hand grinding and utilizing a blender – the extraction of pure oils from the chilli. You may’t obtain this utilizing a blender, solely grinding by hand.
Answer: Use Shrimp Paste in oil. There are a lot of manufacturers on the market. I take advantage of Por Kwan which is the most well-liked model at Asian supermarkets right here in Australia. Simply examine the jar and so long as it has extra than simply shrimp and salt within the substances, it needs to be simply advantageous.
The opposite substances in Thai Crimson Curry Paste are extra acquainted on daily basis substances: lemongrass, coriander / cilantro, eschalots / shallots (child pink onions) and lime.
Plonk all of it into the blender, and blitz away till easy – this could take 30 seconds and even as much as 1 minute, relying on how highly effective your blender is.
And that is what it appears to be like like when it comes out – type of extra orangey than a deep pink (PS Curry paste in jars normally has colouring). You’ll be unusually disillusioned once you do a style check – it doesn’t style like something wonderful. Have religion, my mates, have religion!
Thai Crimson Curry Paste is a base for a lot of Thai dishes, from Thai Fish Muffins to stir fries, fried rice to noodles. However probably the most well-known use might be Thai Crimson Curry.
For those who’ve ever made pink curry utilizing retailer purchased style, you’ll be blown away how significantly better created from scratch is. For those who’re Thai Meals connoisseur, you’ll be astonished how shut that is to the pink curries served at nice Thai eating places. The likes of Longrain, Spice I Am, Chat Thai, Sailors Thai and Khao Pla – the pink curries at these eating places had been our benchmark.
We hope you get pleasure from this as a lot as we do! – Johnsat x
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Developed over years by the RecipeTin Household, that is our Thai Crimson Curry Paste recipe that can make a curry that’s actually tastes like what you get at nice Thai eating places. Guided by world famend Thai Cooks, this can be a Thai Crimson Curry paste recipe that’s doable for any residence prepare dinner that we actually imagine stacks as much as the perfect of what you’ll get at eating places. See put up for extra background info. Use this to make Thai Crimson Curry!
Ingredients
- 16 dried chillis , chopped into 1 cm / 0.5″ pieces seeds shaken out (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp lemongrass , sliced, reedy outer skin removed (1 large) (Note 2)
- 1 tbsp grated galangal, peeled and grated (Note 3)
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled whole
- 1 tbsp shrimp paste in oil (Note 4)
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp chopped coriander/cilantro stem and roots (Note 5)
- 2 red shallots , peeled and roughly chopped (Note 6)
- 1 tsp lime zest
- ¼ cup reserved chilli soaking water
Instructions
- Taste dried chillies for spiciness – see Note 1. Place the chopped chillies in a large boil and pour over about 3 cups of freshly boiled water. Leave to soak for a good 30 minutes or so.
- Remove chillis and reserve water.
- Put chillis in a blender or powerful food processor.
- Add remaining curry paste ingredients into the blender along with 1/4 cup of the chilli soaking water.
- Blitz on high until smooth – test by rubbing between your fingers. It takes around 20 seconds in my Vitamix which is a powerful blender. It might take up to 1 minute. Use a touch more water as required to aide with blending.
- Scrape into a bowl or airtight container. Store for up to 3 days in the fridge, or freeze it to use later.
- Use in place of store bought curry paste in recipes that call for it – especially Thai Red Curry!
Notes
1. Spiciness – This curry paste is supposed to be quite spicy but not totally blow-your-head-off. This recipe is made with the generic Asian dried chillies purchased from Asian grocery stores which are usually not that spicy, it’s more about the flavour they bring to curries. But in this recipe, we use a LOT of the dried chillies as they are the key flavour base, so they do make the paste spicy.
The spiciness of chillies (dried and fresh) is like playing roulette – at different times of the year, they go up and down. The only way to really control how spicy your curry will be is to taste the chilli. If it’s not that spicy, proceed with the recipe.
But if it’s spicy, then feel free to dial it back!
It is not made with the small Thai Chillies which are considerably spicier. If using dried Thai chillies, use 6 – 8.
You can substituted with other dried red chillies but always check spiciness first!
2. 1 lemongrass with a thick stem is usually sufficient. Peel the tough green outer layers and slice the inside.
3. Galangal looks like ginger but is more citrusy and harder. It’s actually pretty hard to cut. Most recipes will tell you just to toss in chunks, but unless you have an extremely powerful blender or food processor, there’s a strong chance you end up with grainy curry. So I strongly recommend grating it – it’s the best way to ensure it blends in.
You can find it in some grocery stores in Australia (Harris Farms and some Woolworths sell it). If you can’t find it, use the same amount of ginger + the zest of 1 lime (in addition to what is already in the recipe).
4. Shrimp Paste – I use Por Kwan Shrimp Paste in Bean Oil, the most popular one sold at Asian grocery stores here in Australia. (Here are some online links – for Australia and America). While many authentic recipes will say to use ordinary shrimp paste which is made with just fermented shrimp and salt (it comes either in small jars or dried blocks), we find that using Shrimp Paste sold in jars where other flavouring have been added (mainly oil, a bit of garlic, and soy sauce powder) goes a long way to making a truly restaurant quality curry paste. This is especially so when using a blender instead of mortar and pestle as when dried chillies are ground by hand, the natural oils are extracted. So using a shrimp paste in oil makes up for this.
If you can’t find Shrimp Paste in oil, Belacan is an adequate substitute which, believe it or not, is sold at Woolworths in Australia. Use 2 teaspoons, just sort of crumble it to measure out and put it straight into the blender. No need to rehydrate, like when used in other recipes.
5. Coriander roots / stems – you’ll find that authentic recipes call for coriander roots which has great coriander flavour. In Western grocery stores and most Asian stores (at least, here in Australia), coriander is typically sold with barely any roots at the base of the bunch. Cleaning the little roots there are is a pain, and if you don’t clean it well, you end up with dirt grit in the sauce. So I get around this by using the stem instead – and more of it. Fresh coriander in any form is not a major ingredient in the curry paste because you lose so much of the flavour when it is sautéed for the curry, so don’t get too hung up about this.
6. Eshalots are the baby red onions. Sometimes called red shallots, French shallots.
7. Blender vs food processor – because of the quantity of paste, I find it works better to use a blender and also typically, blenders are more powerful than food processors. I have a Vitamix blender which is very powerful, ideal for making red curry paste. This will work in a food processor as long as it’s a decent powered one, and if yours is a large food processor, it’s best to use the insert.
8. USES: Use this homemade Thai Red Curry Paste in place of store bought in recipes that call for it. The most common use is Thai Red Curry. Red Curry Paste is also a key flavour base for many other Thai dishes, from soups to curries to stir fries, and Thai Fish Cakes.
9. References: Over the years, we have referenced many sources in arriving at what we believe is the perfect balance of flavours. This includes some of the best Thai Chefs in the world, including David Thompson (Australia’s Michelin starred Thai food expert), Sujet Saenkham (of Australia’s popular Spice I Am Thai Restaurants), Sailors Thai, Chat Thai, Khao Pla, Gourmet Traveller, Chinta Rhia. We also referenced this Authentic Thai Red Curry Paste recipe from Eating Thai Food. We would say the DNA of our recipe is from David Thompson.
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