mussaman curry paste
Prep time: 40 minutes
Makes: about 1 1/2 cups
1/3 cup dried red chilies
2 tablespoons whole cumin seed
1 teaspoon whole corriander seed
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 stalks fresh lemongrass
1 tablespoon finely chopped, peeled fresh galanga or ginger
1/2 cup chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
Stem and remove seeds from chilies. Coarsely chop and soak in warm water for about 20 minutes.
Measure spices, whole seeds in one bowl, ground in another. Dry fry whole spices 3-5 minutes over medium heat stirring or shaking to prevent burning. Return to bowl to cool. Dry fry ground spices 2-3 minutes as above. Grind whole spices with a spice grinder. Combine all spices together.
Trim lemongrass stalks. Remove grassy tops and hard root bottom yielding about a 3 inch stalk. Remove hard outer leaves. Slice stalk crosswise as thinly as possible. Chop slices.
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth using the chili soaking water to facilitate blending.
Store in a glass jar, covered tightly. Keeps for about 1 month in the refrigerator.
Nancie's recipe calls for additional salt (2 teaspoons) and shrimp paste (1 tablespoon). Do to the dreaded middle-aged white man's disease and a suboptimal gene set, I've left both of these out of my curry paste.
Derived from Real Thai, The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking by Nancie McDermott.