Homemade Thai Red Curry With Fish : A Flavorful Journey

Homemade Curry paste, is it really worth the effort???

Yes, definitely. There is a noticeable difference between curries using homemade and ready-made pastes. Curry paste in Thailand is prepared using a very simple mortar and pestle. The pestle crushes and smashes all the ingredients, mingling them together completely and releasing the natural aromatic oils, rather than being ripped and torn by the blade of a blender or food processor.

Unfortunately, making curry paste is time consuming and I have to confess that I do use the ready-made pastes in many of my Thai dishes.

The secret lies in cooking the paste. Follow the steps carefully and the flavour of this curry will be intense.

Ingredients

• 1 Kg Blue Spot Emperor
• 2 to 3 tablespoons ready made red Thai curry paste (the number of spoons determines the heat of the curry)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil or coconut oil
• 1 onion finely minced
• 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon of finely minced ginger
• 2 tablespoons of finely minced galangal
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup water
• zest of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar
• Kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
• 1 red chilli sliced diagonally
• juice of one lime

Method

• Cut the fish into medium size pieces. Dry them with a paper towel.
• Rub 2 tablespoons of the ready made red curry paste over the pieces of fish (I used MAE HOY, RED CURRY PASTE)

• Using a mortar and pestle mince the onion, garlic, ginger and galangal. You will have a fine paste.

• Heat the vegetable oil in a sauce pan and gently fry the onion, the garlic, the ginger and galangal paste for about 3 to 5 minutes until all the ingredients are soft, and fragrant.

• Add the Red curry paste and stir-fry for about 2 minutes until it is cooked and fragrant.

• Gradually pour in the coconut cream, stirring to completely incorporate all the ingredients. Bring to a simmer.
• Then add the coconut milk and water stir well.
• Add the fish sauce, palm sugar or brown sugar and lemon zest. Mix well.
• Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to cook and thicken a little bit.

• Add the fish and cover the pan with a lid, and simmer until the fish is cooked, around 5 to 8 minutes.

• Turn off the heat.
• Sprinkle the curry with chopped coriander, kaffir lime slices, and chilli slices on top with a squeeze of lime juice.
• Serve immediately with Jasmine rice.

Tips

• Let the fish cooked undisturbed until it is just done.
• Cod, Snapper or Grouper are good fish for this recipe.
• The coconut milk curry sauce with the onion, garlic, ginger and galangal and curry paste will be flavourful.