Curry Paste Recipe

Everyone has their favourite Curry Paste Recipe. I have several.
My first rule is to avoid commercial curry pastes. Their jars may show smiling Indian housewives or heaps of the choicest, freshest ingredients, but I can assure you that what goes into them is chosen more for cheapness than for fragrance. Aside from being relatively expensive – especially in the UK – they are made with sub-standard ingredients like rapeseed oil and preservatives you'd never use in your own curries. Although it's best to make up pastes for each dish as you make it, I know it's often convenient to have something ready-made in the fridge and so I offer these suggestions.
There are three recipes here: two Indian and a Thai Green Curry Paste. More will appear on thsi site soon: please bookmark and keep returning to see what we're up to.
Feel free to adapt, add to and subtract from the ingredients as your heart (and palate) desires. And, as ever, I only ever offer measurements for guidance. Although it's far from authentic, I use olive oil for these pastes, but that's just me; around 2 tablespoons per paste. They should keep in a screw-top jar in the fridge a week or so, longer if you cover with oil.

Bengal Curry Paste Recipe

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon paprika
1-3 dried red chillies
1 bay leaf
a healthy dollop of tomato paste (around 2 tablespoons)
2 garlic cloves
1 inch (2.5 cms) peeled root ginger

Pour some oil into a pan over a medium heat and add the mustard seeds. Once they start to pop, remove from the heat and add the rest of the spices and the red chillies. Stir over a low heat until everything is gently roasted and smelling wonderful. Put everything together in a blender or pestle and mortar and turn into a smooth paste. Add a little water if necessary.

Madras Curry Paste Recipe

3 tablespoons  olive oil or vegetable oil

1 teaspoons black mustard seeds

4 tablespoons ground coriander

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 teaspoons ground tumeric

1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 whole dried red chillies
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 crushed cloves of garlic
2.5cm (1 inch) cube fresh ginger root, finely chopped
75ml malt vinegar

Put half the oil in a pan, the rest in a blender or food processor together with the garlic and ginger. Add the whole red chillies and the mustard seeds to the pan. Immediately the seeds pop add the other spices (but not the garlic, ginger and vinegar) and roast over a low heat until it smells like roasted curry. Be careful not to let your spices burn. Pour into the blender/ processor together with some of the vinegar and blitz. Keep pouring in vinegar until you have the right consistency. You may need slightly more or less vinegar, depending on how thirsty the spices are.

Thai Green Curry Recipe

3-8 fresh green chillies, depending on taste.
1 small chopped onion
5 cm /2inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small bunch of whole fresh coriander (leaves, stalks and roots, if available)
2 lemongrass stalks, chopped – if you can't find any, use 2 tablespoons of dried lemongrass
The juice of 1 lime
The zest of 2 limes
4 kaffir lime leaves (optional)
2.5cm/1in piece galangal, peeled and chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon crushed coriander seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
2 teaspoons Thai fish sauce or light soy sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil

This is the simplest of all recipes: stick it all in a blender and blitz into a firm paste, adding more or less oil as the mixture demands. Store in the fridge in screwtop jars.

Those are the three best Curry Paste Recipes I knoiw.