Ingredients:
- 3 stalk lemongrass, sliced
- 1 yellow chile, sliced with seeds removed (this can be omitted for those with dietary restrictions).
- 6 shallots, thinly sliced. (if you can’t find shallots, you can use a large red onion instead)
- 1 thumb-sized piece galangal, sliced. (if you can’t find galangal, just double the ginger, not exactly the same but adequate.)
- 2 thum-sized piece of ginger, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic – sliced
- 1.5 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon Thai shrimp paste – (there are a lot of types of shrimp paste but you are looking for kapi (or gkapi).
- 2 large pinky finger-sized piece of fresh turmeric, thinly sliced (if you can’t find this sub with a 1/2 tsp of ground dried turmeric – it wont have quite the same flavour, but will provide the rich color and anti inflammatory properties.
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons lime juice, (in a pinch I have used lemon juice, but it lacks that lovely high note that limes afford).
- 1 tablespoon tomato concentrate puree
- 10 ounces coconut milk
- 2 tbsps of coconut oil for sauté
- 1 tsp of salt
Steps:
Gently sauté shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, lemon grass, pepper, coriander, chilli, cumin seeds and ground cumin for 5 minutes on low / medium heat. The purpose of this is to bring out the flavor, rather than cook the ingredients, therefor there is no need to see ingredients darken particularly, although they might. Be careful not to burn anything.
Place all of these and the other ingredients together in a liquidizer and buzz, until more or less smooth.
