Thai green curry Paste

If you never have made your own curry paste before then I strongly suggest you give it a go. You can get one in jars that are very authentic and taste great but in the end of the day it will never be as good as something that you make your self . And if you make it is up to you, if you want more garlic use more garlic, more heat more chilli more line use more lime.

For this curry paste
3cm/1in lemongrass stalk, finely chopped
2 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 lime, juice only
1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped,
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2.5cm/1in of galangal or root ginger
10g/½oz fresh coriander
10g/½oz Thai basil
A little oil.

Now how you grind this up is up to you but I use a small hand blender. If you want the real experience then you can use a mortar and pestle.

Chop up all the ingredients as fine as you can to start with. With the lemongrass, make sure that you remove the hard little root bit at the bottom. Then just get it and blend it all together until you have a paste.

Put the paste in a tub in the fridge and let it all sit for about 20 minuets and then you can use it. If you want to keep it longer, make sure that it is cover in oil and it will last about a week.

Now all depending on you and your hands you might want to use a pare of rubber gloves to make this as I know that a lot of people find this mix of raw spices rather harsh to handle