Take your camp cooking up a notch with this aromatic green curry paste. Packed with fresh ingredients and bold spices, it’s the perfect base for a delicious, homemade Thai green curry.
Makes 2 ½ cups
Ingredients
- ½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
- 3 teaspoons coriander seeds
- 3 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 8 cm piece of galangal (or ginger), finely chopped
- 2 lemongrass stalks, white parts only, roughly chopped
- 10 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 coriander sprigs (roots, stalks and leaves), washed well and roughly chopped
- 8 long green chillies, deseeded and chopped (or for a hotter paste: 6 long green chillies and
- 2 small green chillies, chopped)
- 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
- Zest of 2 limes
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Salt flakes
Method
Place the peppercorns, coriander seeds and cumin seeds in a small saucepan and toast over medium heat for 1–2 minutes or until fragrant.
Crush the toasted spices with a mortar and pestle until finely ground and transfer to a bowl. Now crush the galangal, lemongrass and garlic to a paste using the mortar and pestle. Remove and add to the spices in the bowl. Pound the onion and coriander to a paste using the mortar and pestle, then add to the other pounded ingredients.
Finally, pound the chilli into a rough paste. (I pound the ingredients in stages as I find it’s much easier if the mortar isn’t too full.) Add the shrimp paste and lime zest to the spices in the bowl, then return everything to the mortar and pound to form a nicely uniform paste.
Mix in the vegetable oil and season with a pinch of salt. Alternatively, after crushing the toasted spices, place all the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth. The paste is now ready to use as the base of your green curry.
Recipe from Cook Ahead by Justine Schofield, published by Plum. RRP: $44.99, photography by Rob Palmer.
