Sawaddee ka welcome to hot thai kitchen today we're going to make a recipe that
really I should have made a long time ago because it's so popular but for whatever reason I never
got around to it we are making yellow curry now yellow curry in Thai is called gaeng garee
now gaeng means curry but garee does not mean yellow okay this might get a little confusing
there is something called Kang Lou young which is literally yellow curry but that's another curry
that you probably haven't had so it could get a little confusing garee on the other hand means
curry so if you're like yes it's curry curry but Guddi in Thai comes from the word curry
in a sense of an Indian curry because that's where the influence of this curry comes from
so you're gonna see in our curry paste there's going to be a lot of Indian spices that don't
show up often other Thai dishes so we're going to do this in two parts first we're going to
make the curry paste and then we're going to go and make the curry so first the ingredients for
the curry paste dry spices coriander seeds cumin seed white peppercorns curry powder
so and dry to me next though right going going gone ginger to work and finally some shallots
garlic lemongrass shrimp paste so the Chili's I'm using dry large Chili's today which is what
we typically use for curry paste they're less spicy so what I'm going to do is going to be a
little different from what I have you've seen my red curry paste or Panang curry paste episodes
this is going to be a different technique because I've discovered that it's faster this way so I'm
going to cut them into chunks first now in those episodes I soaked them in water and rehydrate them
before I start pounding them and as you see I've discovered something more efficient the seats I
don't really care for but I'm not going to ask you cut them to see it's most of them are going
to fall out anyway and then what I'm going to do is I'm going to grind it in my coffee grinder here
now coffee grinder is great for doing dry things like chili so this one I actually used only for
Chili's you know I don't use for my coffee because I'm like healthy would be very very spicy coffee
grinders are great for pulverizing dry ingredients now if I try to do the whole curry paste in here
it won't grind it as finely as a mortar and pestle because they don't handle wet stuff very well so
that's why but chilies are the hardest thing to grind in a mortar and pestle because the skin
is so stubborn so if I get them done here first it'll speed things up so much more so here we go
you grind Chili's in the coffee grinder or any electric device make sure you let the dust settle
for a few seconds before you open it I like to sort of tap it yeah I remember being traumatized
by this we made chili flakes once as a kid and whoever was making it open the thing without
without letting it settle and I happen to be in the vicinity and it was not pleasant let me tell
you okay so this is pretty good I still have a couple of big chunks but it's not a big deal
most of it is gone and this is going to speed up your curry paste making by a lot so moving
on we're going to now get our mortar and pestle involved so first thing whenever you are making
curry paste always start with grinding your dry spices and do them separately so in goes
my toasted coriander seeds notice I said toasted and cumin seeds are white peppercorns yep that's
all we need to grind anyway gotta start kind of gently so they don't jump at you but once the
oh like that one did mmm the smell cumin and coriander okay and we're just going to remove
it because right now if I start grinding all the rough all that all the lemongrass and whatnot it's
gonna just be act like a cushion a little bit so I like to take it out first and now to this
I'm also going to just mix in our other dry things which is curry powder now curry powder this is the
same mix that I used in my pineapple fried rice and I bought the curry powder I smelled it and
I thought do I really like the smell of this and I thought no so I doctored it and I added a bunch of
other spices so point being there is no one type of curry powder that you must use if you like the
smell of the one that you have go ahead use it if not you can find other mixes you can go to Indian
stores and see what they have usually they have a lot of selection but whatever you like it's going
to be good in the curry because if you even if you buy a Thai brand you don't like the smell
you're not going to like it in the curry so that's what I did so got that that's our dry spices we're
going to set that aside and then we're going to go back and start pounding our sturdy herbs now
by 30 herbs I'm talking about the lemongrass galangal and ginger now that I've chopped them
up because if you chop them up then it takes you less time in the mortar I'm also going to
add my turmeric but one inch knob of turmeric I'm adding it whole now I'm not I didn't peel
it because I washed it really well these things grow underground so you want to wash it really
well but I don't really think peeling makes much of a difference the skin is so thin and I also
didn't want to chop it ahead of time because I don't want to stain my cutting board forever
yellow like I've done before so I'm going to put it in whole and I'm also going to add to this my
salt normally I'd use coarse coarser grained salt but I forgot it so so a note about turmeric that's
the thing that makes this curry yellow but if you add too much tumeric it does not taste good
if you ever taste turmeric by itself it's not a pleasant flavor but it adds a nice color and and
subtle flavors to other things now if you follow me on Facebook you know I tried making a turmeric
shake ones and that didn't go very well so once things start to mush but it's not fine yet it's
going to start getting a little bit wet especially if you've got frozen previously frozen things in
there this is where I like to add my dry stuff back in because the dry stuff helps absorb the
liquid and prevent it from splashing in your face like it usually does to me so this really helps
oh okay we're almost done I just prefer pounding it on the floor because it's just more comfortable
sitting down so what you look for as far as consistency is basically get it as fine as
you can you know this is pretty good most of the little bits are just bits of garlic and shallots
doesn't not a big deal because when you make it into a curry those things will disintegrate
anyway so but most of our chunky fiber stuff is gone the last thing that needs to go in is our
shrimp paste standard ingredient for most Thai curries if you're trying to make this vegetarian
it is okay to leave it out your curry will still be delicious just be aware that you might need
more salt more fish sauce well is shrinking that more slices or salt in the final curry than what
I'm using okay and that you're just going to mix it all up and it's pretty much done that
is our curry paste so this is enough for one recipe one big curry that's going to serve
about four people and that is it that is our yellow curry paste now next we're going to turn
this actually into a delicious yellow chicken curry with potatoes and onions so stay tuned
for our next episode and now in the meantime if you're interested in this recipe with all the
ingredients and everything visit my website hot a kitchen calm it will be under the tutorials
page on which you will also find recipes for red curry paste and Panang curry paste so you
can explore to your heart's content and if you enjoy the show please click to subscribe so
I can keep doing what I'm doing and I will see you next time for your next delicious Thai meal