Thai Yellow Curry Paste
My daughter and I love ordering yellow curry from our local Thai restaurant because it’s so comforting, flavorful, and spicy. I stumbled upon a recipe for this Thai yellow curry paste on Pinch of Yum that I had to try. I halved the recipe and adapted it a little bit because I couldn’t find dried Thai chilies so I just used fresh Thai chilies instead. I started out with two then added a third after taste testing to make sure it didn’t get too spicy for my son. I made a delicious vegetable curry over rice for dinner using the paste and it was wonderful! Seriously, so good. Next time I will make the full batch and freeze the other portions.
How to Make Thai Yellow Curry Paste
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Peel the shallots then slice them in half lengthwise. Place them on a piece of tin foil then drizzle with some olive oil and wrap tightly. Remove outer paper off the garlic. Slice the top off the heads of garlic so the cloves are partially exposed. Drizzle with oil, and wrap each head of garlic in foil. Peel the ginger and cut it into thin slices. Arrange in a single layer, drizzle with oil, and wrap in foil.
Place all the foil packets on a baking sheet and place them into the oven to bake for 15 minutes. Remove the ginger (it should be soft), increase the temperature to 375, and roast the shallots and garlic for another 30 minutes until golden brown and very fragrant. Open the packets and let them cool.
Make the curry paste by squeezing the garlic from their casings into the food processor. Add all of the other ingredients, using only two red chilies to start with.
Pulse or puree until the yellow curry paste reaches your desired consistency. Taste and add more Thai chilies if desired. I used about 1/3 cup in the yellow curry recipe I will post tomorrow. The paste keeps for about a week in the fridge and it freezes well.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 large shallots peeled & halved lengthwise
- 2 large full heads of garlic
- 1 3- inch piece of fresh ginger peeled & thinly sliced
- 2-7 whole Thai chili peppers to taste
- 2 ¼ tsp salt
- 1 - 1 ½ tbsp turmeric to taste
- 1 - 1 ½ tbsp mild curry powder to taste
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 ½ tbsp lemongrass paste
- 2 tbsp packed cilantro leaves and stems
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Peel the shallots then slice them in half lengthwise.
- Place them on a piece of tin foil then drizzle with some olive oil and wrap tightly.
- Remove outer paper off the garlic. Slice the top off the heads of garlic so the cloves are partially exposed.
- Drizzle with oil, and wrap each head of garlic in foil.
- Peel the ginger and cut it into thin slices.
- Arrange in a single layer, drizzle with oil, and wrap in foil.
- Place all the foil packets on a baking sheet and place them into the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the ginger (it should be softened), increase the oven temperature to 400, and roast the shallots and garlic for another 30 minutes until golden brown and very fragrant. Open the packets and let them cool.
- Make the curry paste by squeezing the garlic from their casings into the food processor.
- Add all of the other ingredients, using only two red chilies to start with.
- Pulse or puree until the yellow curry paste reaches your desired consistency.
- Taste and add more Thai chilies if desired.
- Side Note: I used about 1/3 cup in the yellow curry recipe I will post tomorrow. The paste keeps for about a week in the fridge and it freezes well.
Cool that you made the curry paste from the scratch. I am saving this to try. Have never seen that lemongrass paste here, I guess I need to get some fresh one to make this.
I use Thai curry paste all the time but had never thought of making my own, Thanks for this it will make life easier when the shops run out which they so often do!! Take care Diane
Homemade is good. I didn’t know I could get the lemongrass in paste in a tube. So convenient. Thanks for posting that.
I can never find yellow curry paste at the store when I want it, but this is such a great reminder to just make it myself!!
Can I just say, I don’t cook much.
Hardly anything. Decided to try making this and the actual dish….it turned out amazing. I’ve attempted yellow curry several times in the past, but it’s always been terrible (and always been with store bought paste, maybe that’s why).
For someone who is pretty green in the kitchen, you made a recipe that was easy to follow and extremely delicious (I ended up using 5 chilies and a dash of chili powder and it still wasn’t spicy enough tho maybe another chili would have worked). 5/5 stars though, keeping this recipe.
Made this for the first time last month, but halved the recipe as i wanted to try it out first before making a larger batch. It was amazing!!! Making a large batch today and sharing with friends. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
This was easy to make and very flavourful. Three Thai chilli peppers was perfect heat for us. Thanks for sharing this recipe!