Muoi Khuntilanont's Kitchen

nam prik kaeng masaman

masaman curry paste

Description

Masaman curry is a delicate blend of hot and sour, originating from theIslamic south, possibly brought by early Portuguese traders

Ingredients

• 10-20 dried red chillies
• 4-6 tablespoons kratiem (garlic), chopped
• 4 tablespoons chopped shallots (i.e. the small red skinned onions)
• 1 tablespoon ground corriander seed
• 1 tablespoon "kaffir" line skin (ordinary lime skin will do ifyou can't get it)
• 1 tablespoon kapi (fermented shrimp paste - note this smells awful untilafter you cook it, but it is quite essential to the flavor)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (from fresh bark)
• 1 teaspoon gound cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground star anise
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 2" pieces of lemon grass stalk, sliced into thin rounds
• a cube about half an inch on a side of galangal root, roughly chopped
• 1-2 teaspoons of fish sauce.

Method

The galangal is roasted before use. The ground spices should preferably befresh, in which case you should briefly toast them in a wok without any oil tobring out the flavor before grinding them.The ingredients are blended to a finepaste (traditionally in a heavy granite mortar and pestle, but you can use afood processor just aswell, and with far less effort). Note if you can get freshred chillies you can usefully use them instead of the dried ones.

Shelf life

You can keep this paste in a well stoppered bottle in a cool place for 3-4weeks. Alternatively it can be frozen and kept for 3-4 months. I recomendfreezing it in an ice-cube tray to form known quantities for subsequent use.