Pha-naeng Curry Paste

From The Elegant Taste of Thailand -- Cha Am Cuisine, by Sisamon Kongpan and Pinyo Srisasat, SLG Books, Berkeley, 1989. ISBN 0-943389-05-4.

This is called Nam Phrik Kaeng Kua in the book, but I believe it's also called Pha-naeng curry paste. I could be wrong.

5 small dried chillies, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes and deseeded.
3T shopped shallot
2T chopped garlic
1t chopped galangal (the spice grinder was able to chop the dried galangal. I was not)
1T chopped lemon grass
1t chopped kaffir lime rind
1t chopped coriander root
2t salt
1t shrimp paste

Blend everything in a blender (do the shrimp paste last).

We skipped the coriander root when we didn't have any. (Finding coriander root in stores might be impossible -- we grow our own). We used a bit of regular lime rind and some dried kaffir lime leaves instead of the kaffir lime rind, which we couldn't get. We've also mistakenly used 1T galangal, but it was good.

Jim Plank
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