For many Asian recipes, I prepare them over a couple of days to make assembling the dish with fresh ingredients relatively quick and simple. For Thai Red Curry, I like to make the curry paste in advance because it keeps well and can be frozen!

Today I made Thai red curry paste. This recipe is best made in a good sized mort and pestle. However, if you are not up for A LOT of pounding, it can be made in a blender.

Today, I confess I used my twister jar on my Blendtec. The twister jar is smaller with a lid that you can turn as the blender runs. It helps to keep the ingredients moving down the jar and alleviates the need to repeatedly stop the blender and scrape down the sides. It works a charm for all spice pastes!

Thai Red Curry Paste

Ingredients

16 dried chilies, soaked in hot water

10 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

2 shallots, peeled + roughly chopped

2 stalks lemon grass, outer stalk removed and the bottom 4-5 inches only, roughly chopped

2 tbs coriander roots (or stems), finely chopped

2 tbs fresh galangal root, finely chopped

skin of 1 makrut lime (kaffir lime), (just the outer green skin without the white pith)

1 tsp shrimp paste

6 tsp white pepper corns, ground

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp Himalayan pink salt, finely ground

Method

Soaked the dried chillies in hot water and set aside.

If using a mort and pestle, start with pounding the white pepper corns until you have a powder. Transfer to a bowl and add the ground cumin and coriander. In the mort, place all the remaining hard, dry ingredients in and pound and pound and pound until the ingredients break up and make a paste. It takes some time and elbow grease! Add the shallots, soaked chillies and pound until they are totally broken up. Then add the ground spices, salt and shrimp paste and pound until you have a very fragrant, fully dissolved paste.

If using a blender, add all the ingredients in the jar and run on high for at least two minutes until your ingredients are totally combined and your chillies have broken up thoroughly. If you do not have a twister jar, you will need to stop the blender repeatedly, scrape down the sides and run until you have a paste.

Store in small, airtight containers in the refrigerator or the freezer for later use.