Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel
Making a Curry Paste
from Scratch
Paste Making: A Gratifying Experience
by Kasma Loha-unchit
Copyright © 1995 Kasma Loha-unchit in It Rains Fishes
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Curry Recipes: Roast Duck and Pumpkin Curry | Easy Green Curry with Pork | Green Curry with Fish/Shrimp Dumplings | Chicken Red Curry Recipe
Sections: Paste Making (below) | Tips on Equipment and Techniques | Tips on Prepping Herbs and Spices
Paste Making
There 
are few gastronomic delights more satisfying than curries made from freshly ground pastes. The
flavors of a good, homemade paste surpass even the very best pastes imported from the kitchens
of Bangkok. Moreover, paste making is a fun activity and a deeply stimulating experience. The
aromas of all the spices and herbs are released as they are pounded in the stone mortar, and
the olfactory nerves are rewarded with unexpected pleasures.
One of my students regained her sense of smell – which she had lost following an accident – as her nose was stimulated by the aromas from the herbs used in paste making. Others have found the process of pounding and grinding to be therapeutic in itself, regarding it as a safe way to release pent-up tension and suppressed aggression. One of these students, who had traveled extensively in Thailand, swore that the Thai people she met were as gentle as they were because they spent so much time pounding and chopping and cooking in the kitchen. She stayed with families in rural areas and awoke each morning to the sound of the rhythmic pounding of the mortar and pestle coming from the kitchen. It seemed to her that their aggressions were directed and transformed into something useful and creative, rather than harmful and destructive.
Pounding up a storm in the kitchen certainly can relieve frustration, anger and depression as well as produce a great meal and the resulting feeling of accomplishment. The sharing of the meal restores a sense of harmony and connectedness with others. Energy is transformed from negative to positive, and everyone gains.
These therapeutic benefits are not forthcoming, however, if you are rushing against time in the kitchen. Paste making can be a very engaging process, and time constraints will only produce stress rather than relieve it. The benefits are also lost if you try to take a short-cut by using a food processor, rather than the age-old mortar and pestle.
A food processor mainly chops and shreds, and unless liquid is added, you end up with a coarsely chopped mixture, not a paste. Grinding and pounding with a heavy mortar and pestle, on the other hand, crush the fibers of herbs, releasing the essential oils that hold the flavors and aromas. That is why herbs that appear fibrous and dry become very moist when pounded. A pounded paste is immensely aromatic and has a breadth and depth of flavor lacking in a processed mixture.
One of my students – who would have preferred to make everything in the food processor – decided to make two pots of curries using the same recipe. One was made with the paste created entirely by pounding in a stone mortar, and the other was made with paste produced in the food processor. Upon tasting, his wife immediately identified the curry made the traditional way; the flavors were just so much more alive.
When you are short on time, you may need to use short-cuts. Just be aware of the trade-offs and decide if you are willing to sacrifice taste for an extra half hour of your time. Also, remember that not all short-cuts work and may, instead, lead to frustration. As you are learning the intricacies of Thai cooking, it is important to follow guidelines as closely as possible and learn what each step contributes to the final result. When you have gained a better understanding of the whys and hows of the traditional methods, then you can begin to take short-cuts, noting as you do what is being sacrificed along the way. You may find certain steps are not as crucial as others and discover a short-cut that works well for you in your kitchen without compromising flavor – it may even add a special twist that you prefer. But unless you already know the way to get some place, you may get lost taking a short-cut.
Sections: Paste Making | Tips on Equipment and Techniques (below) | Tips on Prepping Herbs and Spices | Return to top
As already suggested, the one
indispensable piece of equipment needed to make exceptional curry pastes is a good, strong,
large and heavy mortar and pestle, one that allows you to pound with vigor and twirl in
grinding frenzy. It should give you much pleasure with little limitation. In Thailand, there
are a few different kinds of mortar and pestle suited for particular purposes. The most
efficient for making curry pastes is cut and polished out of granite. It can reduce hard seeds
and fibrous herbs down in no time. The pestle and the inside surface of the mortar are polished
smooth and are not rough, coarse or porous. Very dense and heavy, they do not chip and last for
years even when subjected to vigorous daily pounding. Look for this dark grey stone mortar and
pestle set in a Thai or Southeast Asian market near you. It is available in small, medium and
large sizes and ranges from about sixteen to twenty-four dollars.
If you are not able to locate a stone mortar and pestle, the more readily available large clay mortar with hard-wood pestle works almost as well. It is tall and deep, dark brown in color, has a fairly smooth surface and is much less expensive, averaging around seven dollars a set. Because wood against clay is not as hard as stone against stone, this mortar and pestle works better pounding a small quantity of fibrous herbs at a time, so that the herbs are not cushioned by themselves in a soft bed. Use a straight pounding motion as well as a grinding motion up and down the rougher sides of the mortar. It also helps to have the hardier ingredients chopped or cut in smaller pieces before pounding.
Some of my students prefer the clay-and-wood combination to the stone because it makes a pleasing and much gentler sound and vibration than the louder and harsher stone-against-stone banging tones. The rhythmic sound of pounding with the clay-and-wood mortar and pestle has brought these students meditative calm. To them, it is worth the extra time.
In Thailand, ingredients that go into a curry paste are pounded together all at once in the mortar. Often, the softer and wetter ingredients like garlic and shallots are placed in whole as they mash up relatively easily. Coarse salt crystals provide some abrasion to reduce the harder and more fibrous herbs and spices as well as pull their flavors together. The pounding goes on until everything in the mortar is mashed into a paste and is no longer distinguishable. This can take a long time for someone inexperienced in mortar and pestle techniques.
If you are a beginner with mortar and pestle, work on one ingredient at a time, starting with the dry spices. They are easily pulverized with a rolling motion of the pestle around the bottom and sides of the mortar while its surface is still dry. Remove them from the mortar before proceeding with the most fibrous of the herbs. Pound one ingredient at a time, a small amount at a time, moving from the hardiest to the softest and wettest. Herbs reduce more quickly when pounded with a sturdy up and down motion; only after their fibers have been adequately crushed does a rolling wrist motion contribute to their reduction. When all the ingredients have been reduced to powder or paste, combine them and pound together until they are well blended and no longer distinguishable. This process takes less time overall and, for the less experienced, produces a paste that is more uniform.
Sections: Paste Making | Tips on Equipment and Techniques | Tips on Prepping Herbs
Herbs
reduce easier in the mortar when they are cut
into small pieces or chopped ahead of time. This is especially true with lemon grass, which has
tough fibers running the length of the stalk. Slice it into thin rounds before pounding, or
your paste may end up with a stringy texture. Reconstituted dried ingredients, such as kaffir
lime peel, also benefit from cutting with a sharp knife beforehand. Although softened by
soaking, the once-dried zest can still be tough and sometimes pounds to a flat piece without
breaking down. If you can, avoid pounding dry spices with fibrous herbs because they frequently
cushion one another and end up taking longer to reduce. For those who seek short-cuts, the
wetter herbs like garlic and shallots chop easily with the aid of a chopper or mini-processor,
and the dry spices pulverize quickly in a coffee grinder designated specifically for grinding
spices – but always pound them afterward to release their flavors fully.
For curries with roasted fragrances, such as massaman and panaeng curries, roast the dry spices in a dry pan over a medium flame and cool before pulverizing. I usually roast the different seeds separately, as the smaller ones like cumin take less time than the larger ones, like coriander seeds. While roasting, seeds release their perfume into the air before they brown, so let them go a while longer after you begin to smell their roasted aromas, or until they are uniformly dark, but not burned. This way the seeds are roasted through to the core and not just toasted on the surface. Stir or shake the pan frequently for even browning. Darkly roasted seeds will permeate a curry with stronger roasted flavors than lightly toasted seeds; burned seeds will make the curry bitter.
Dried red chillies are dry-roasted the same way as seeds, by placing them on a dry pan over the stove, but be careful to watch them closely. They may do nothing the first minute, then all of a sudden burn quickly. Turn often so they darken evenly. You do not want to burn chillies as they release fumes into the air that irritate the mucous linings of the throat all the way down to the lungs. Make sure you have good ventilation. Burning fumes are less likely if the chillies are roasted before de-seeding, as chilli dust from the inside membranes of punctured chillies burns easily on the hot pan. If there are several ingredients that require roasting, I always save the chillies for last, to avoid the possibility of burning traces of them on the pan while I roast the seeds.
For recipes that call for dried chillies, I usually remove and discard the seeds. The flavor of most dried chillies lies mainly in the red skin and dried pods; the seeds are hot but hold less flavor. De-seeding allows you to use more pods for added flavor (as well as for a redder color) without the paste becoming too hot. There are two ways to prepare dried chillies for paste making. They can be ground dried to a fine powder, then pounded with other wet ingredients to form a paste; or they can be soaked first to soften, then chopped and pounded into paste. The latter method seems to produce a curry paste with a fresher-tasting chilli flavor. I usually use the soaking method for pastes using chillies that are not roasted, and the dried-ground method when roasted chillies are called for, to preserve the roasted flavor. To soak, cut off the tip, turn the chilli head down and squeeze out the seeds before putting the chilli in a bowl of water. This allows the water to penetrate to the inside, thereby softening the chillies faster. Avoid using hot water for soaking as it leaches out the more delicate flavors in the chilli pods.
For recipes that call for roasted garlic and shallots, the roasting can be easily accomplished in a toaster oven rather than over the less convenient, traditional charcoal pit. Cut the root ends of the garlic cloves and shallots, leaving the skins on (this prevents them from bursting and creating a sticky mess in your oven). Place them on a tray in a hot oven (450 degrees). Check after five to ten minutes and remove the garlic cloves once they have softened and started to ooze out. Shallots usually take longer, depending on their size. Roasted garlic and shallots pop out of their skins when squeezed with the fingers; they mash up easily in the mortar.
Almost all Thai curry pastes are flavored with gkapi shrimp paste. For recipes that call for roasting gkapi, wrap the amount needed in a small section of banana leaf, hold the packet with tongs and stick it directly into the gas flame of a burner. Turn frequently until the leaf is well charred and the odor of gkapi begins to escape. Remove from the wrapping and pound into the curry paste. In Thailand, gkapi is roasted in charcoal embers; this is easy to do in kitchens equipped with charcoal stoves. If you do not have a banana leaf, substitute with aluminum foil, though this will dry the paste out considerably.
Copyright © 1995 Kasma Loha-unchit
From pages 131 to 135 of It Rains Fishes: Legends, Traditions and the Joys of Thai Cooking, by Kasma Loha-unchit. Published by Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995.Sections: Paste Making | Tips on Equipment and Techniques | Tips on Prepping Herbs and Spices | Return to top
Curry Recipes: Roast Duck and Pumpkin Curry | Easy Green Curry with Pork | Green Curry with Fish/Shrimp Dumplings | Chicken Red Curry Recipe
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Text Copyright © 1995 Kasma Loha-unchit
in It Rains Fishes.
Watercolor Copyright © 1995 Toby Goodenough. All rights reserved.
Mortar and Pestle drawing Copyright © 1995 Margaret DeJong. All rights reserved.
Photograph Copyright © 2001 Tipatat Chennavasin. All rights reserved.
All material on this website is Copyright © 1995 to 2008 Kasma Loha-unchit. All rights reserved.
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Last updated 25 June 2003.