Want to make a similar spicy green curry paste to the ones you tried in Thailand? This takes some practice and patience, but it’s possible. Everyone’s kitchen and tastes are different so an exact recipe is also tough. Today we tackle these challenges and hope to encourage more people around the world to make their own curry pastes. Lovers of green curry, let’s raise the bar of this delicious curry.
One promise we can make, fresh curry paste is ALWAYS better than the packaged kind.
Green Curry Paste Components
Early warning: making your own curry paste can be a mess. If you’re not in Thailand you don’t likely have all the tools you need for the job. Many folks based in cities in Thailand, may not even have space in their kitchen. However, if you have can figure out a method to pound, grind, and blend all of these ingredients together you can make a colorful, nutrient packed curry paste to share with your family.
Most Thai curry pastes are a mix of the following:
(1) dry spices
(2) chili
(3) aromatic roots
(4) fresh herbs
(5) shrimp paste
Curry Paste Crushing and Pounding Tools
Your mission then, is to decide how best to combine all of those ingredients together. Thais traditionally use a mortar and pestle. They are made from heavy granite and when you give them plenty of elbow grease, they’re great at pounding these varied types of ingredients into a paste. In a modern kitchen you may not have this as an option. So you need to find whatever you can to crush the dry spices, and others you can put in a food processor or blender. Here are some options:
Traditional Thai mortar and pestle Spice grinder + blender/ food processor Large rock + blender / food processor
In our Bangkok cooking classes, we teach guests to make the curry paste with the traditional mortar and pestle.
Large rock? Are you serious. Yes! There have been occasions when cooking for people while traveling, where I haven’t had everything I needed to crush spices. If that happens, feel free to go flintstone on these spices. Whatever you gotta do, dinner must go on! Just be sure to wash the rock well and have a suitable surface you can pulverize thing on. The best curry mortars are made of stone after all! Once back to my regular kitchen, I appreciated the hand chiseled granite from Angsila, Thailand so much more.
Remember when you read the recipe below that your rock or spice grinder is mainly for your dry spices. Depending on your machine, you may need some practice getting the paste to be the consistency you desire. This is normal, and you can even add a bit of water or stock if things are getting caught in your machine. If you’re doing it for the first time, I would suggest you don’t blend too smooth.
That sorted? If you still have questions you can comment below. After the recipe, we’ve provided some trouble shooting questions people ask regularly. We hope this helps you make a more authentic green curry. If you enjoy, your support of Courageous Kitchen via our donation pages is much appreciated.
Getting your paste the way you want may take some practice, but we believe it’s worth the effort!
Green Curry Paste Ingredients
Dry spices 1 tsp peppercorn (white peppercorn is most common, but any will do) 1 tsp cumin 1 tbsp coriander seed
Chili 5-10 small spicy Thai green chili (spice lovers can hunt for the “prik kee noo”) 5-10 green medium to large chili (“prik chee fah”, serrano or similar) 1 tbsp of salt (optional if grinding by hand)
Roots 3-4 coriander roots 1 knob of galangal 1 knob of turmeric Note: 1 knob for this purpose is roughly 30-40 grams or 2-3 tablespoons if using the powdered form.
Herbs 4-8 garlic cloves 4-6 shallots (small, sweet ones preferred) 1 tbsp of kaffir lime zest (about half of a kaffir lime) 2-3 lemongrass stalks sliced small
Shrimp Paste 1 heaping tbsp of shrimp paste
Green Curry Paste Instructions
Toast your dry spices. (Optionally any of your roots can be toasted at this time as well.)
Grind your dry spices and set aside.
If pounding by hand, grind your chili in the mortar with salt. After smooth begin adding all other ingredients, including dry spices gradually.
If using a blender combine everything, adding stock or a small amount of coconut milk to help the paste blend together.
Store your curry paste in an airtight container in the fridge or get cooking with a green curry recipe right away.
Fresh green curry paste oxidizes quickly and won’t look vibrant for long. If you don’t plan to use the paste the same day, pan fry with oil and then keep in an airtight container. In the refrigerator, this can last as long as a month.
What if I don’t have a spice grinder or rock (lol)?
Don’t forget you can get coriander, peppercorn and cumin in powder form. The reason we prefer the whole spice is because the flavor is more intense, especially after toasting. However, work with what you have and make sure they are incorporated well into your paste.
A great paste can be used in all sorts of ways. Not making curry? Try green curry fried rice instead!
What can I make with my curry paste besides curry?
Feel free to get creative with your green curry paste. You can use it as a marinade. You can use it to make a spicy sauce to cover steak. One of our favorites? Green curry fried rice!
Can I just dump everything into the mortar or blender?
We see people using the dump method. But depending on the texture you want at the end, we don’t always recommend it for beginners. Adding your ingredients gradually allows you to make sure things incorporate smoothly and you can add or adjust flavors as needed. Then when you’ve made the curry a bunch of times and know what you love (or what your blender can handle), you can take liberties with how you add the ingredients.
Can I use a marble mortar and pestle?
Found a small mortar and pestle in the kitchen store? This is likely used for dry spices and medicine. You can use it to start your curry paste, but you don’t want to be trying to crush things like lemongrass in there because it will likely take forever. I would use it to crush your dry spice, and then move everything to a food processor or blender.
Homemade green curry made with mortar and pestle. The final version used Thai eggplants, winter melon, banana blossom, and tofu.
I can’t find coriander root. Can I substitute the coriander stems or add bell pepper?
People use leaves and stems to help with the color (shouldn’t be needed for this recipe), but it isn’t a good substitute for the flavor of the root. If you go without it, try upping the amount of toasted coriander seeds you add.
If you need to use milder chilies and peppers you can. Just be aware the flavor and water content of them (bell pepper for instance) will change the nature of the paste.
Do you use the same paste for different types of meat?
You can use this generic recipe for any meat. However, if you’re cooking fish, beef, or game meat, we may increase the dried spices and also add more root aromatics. The best part of making your curry paste is the ability to customize it as needed. When Thai chefs customize the curry to the protein, for example adding extra fingerroot when cooking with fish, that’s a sign of next level expertise!
Why is my green curry so light green?
Typically the curry will come out light green. If you want a stronger color, this is really the purpose of the knob of turmeric as an ingredient. You can add more to intensify the green, but be careful it doesn’t start going orange. Turmeric, like the other roots Thais love, is also very healthy for you.
If you’ve seen Netflix’s Chef Show, you may have seen them add the coriander stems, basil, and all sorts of stuff to make it green. Yes, this is possible, but not what we recommend, nor how it’s done it Thailand. That method is more of a quick trick in the kitchen when you’re in a panic and need curry.
Is there a substitute for galangal?
No. There is no substitute for galangal. However, if you can’t find it fresh you can use the dried kind.
Many people make the mistake of thinking ginger is interchangeable. They are not. You can use ginger if you have no other option, but it will change the flavor. This is no major sin though, as ginger is used in some types of curry pastes. However, when using it for the first time, be conservative. The flavor and spice level may surprise you, as it can be more pronounced than roots like galangal and turmeric.
Similar to people adding green leaves to improve the color of your curry, you can do it, but it will require trial and error if you’re chasing a real Thai style curry flavor.
A traditionally made green curry from Chef Bo of Bolan Restaurant in Bangkok.
How can I store my fresh curry paste? Can I freeze it?
Your fresh paste won’t last too much longer than a few days in the fridge. Green curry paste especially has a habit of oxidizing even after only a few hours in the fridge (we should be very afraid of the store-bought pastes that last forever and never change color). To extend the life beyond a week, pan fry the curry paste with a few tablespoons of oil. Then spoon it into a jar or sealed container and store in your refrigerator for as long as a month.
You can freeze your paste as well. But don’t expect the thawed version to be as flavorful. To remedy this, refresh your paste with freshly pounded or grounded aromatics (like chili, garlic, and shallots). We prefer it fresh, but this can be a big timesaver when you have made more paste than you can use easily.
Will my green curry paste be ruined if I’m missing an ingredient?
No. Overall curry paste if pretty forgiving and tolerant of lots of variations. The exception would be when working in a restaurant or cooking for Thai guests. Then you want to make your best efforts to create a traditional curry. If you’re just spicing up dinner for your family, go full on into this project with the spirit of exploration, not fear.
The past few weeks have been a trying time for everyone around the world. Wherever you are reading from, we do wish you good health and would like to share our concern and condolences to anyone who has been directly impacted by the corona virus Covid-19.
At the moment we have few guests or activities planned. However, if you do have a cooking class booked, we want to make sure everyone is aware, we consider your health, and the health of our staff is of the utmost importance.
As an organization whose mission is so closely tied to the handling and cooking of food, we are well prepared to make sure we maintain a safe working and learning environment. We need your help to continue to follow the best practices during this time, and support organizations like ours that work with communities particularly vulnerable to viral disease.
This includes our regular hygienic equipment: * Air conditioning * Air purifier * Anti-bacterial soap * Water filtering and purifying
Our regular hygiene practices: * Sanitizing surfaces * Soap at every sink (there’s 3!) * Limited class size
And new policies: * Postponed or canceled gatherings with over 10 people * No new volunteers will be accepted * Refusing guests with symptoms of illness or poor hygiene * Refunding guests as necessary (minus any booking fees) * Providing more online recipes and cooking courses for you (if you have a request let us know!)
To limit the spread of the virus we may need to refuse service to guests or refund guests who are unable to visit due to travel restrictions. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this causes.
Like so many people around the world, we’re still trying to wrap our minds around going from daily cooking classes to only a few a month. Our social enterprise is crippled, but we hope to one day get it roaring again. If you would like to help through donations, they would be greatly appreciated and put to use helping those in need.
In the meantime, we will still be working with marginalized youth and their families in small groups. As there is often poor information in these communities, we’re hoping to teach people and prevent the spread of the virus to their communities. Otherwise, we will be testing recipes and hopefully sharing more pdf and video resources so that you can join us in cooking delicious Thai food wherever you may be.
Thank you for your understanding, be safe, and let us know if you’ve got a Thai recipe request that would brighten your day!
Don’t miss ‘Ladakh – Land in the Clouds‘ a photography exhibition by David Simon.
This month don’t miss, Ladakh – Land in the Clouds, a special photography exhibition in Bangkok. The exhibition is by David Simon, an expat living in Bangkok who leads adventurous motorcycle tours when he’s not teaching at a local international school. As with David’s tours, the photographs also attempt to take viewers on an adventurous journey through the stunning Indian countryside.
The focus of the photographs is the province of Ladkh, India. David considers the area one of the most beautiful on earth. Unfortunately, despite the raw natural beauty of the surroundings, few people know about Ladakh, because conflict in the region has also made it one of the world’s most disputed areas.
Physics teacher David Simon invites you to step into his journeys through Kashmir.
The exhibition launch will be held March 14th, from 4pm until 6pm. The prints will be on display throughout Cajutan Swedish Restaurant, and cost 2,500 each to purchase. Following the launch event, guests are invited to enjoy a sunset drink on the Cajutan rooftop.
Proceeds from the sale of prints will go to benefit Courageous Kitchen’s work with marginalized communities in Bangkok. The support is particularly timely as the impact of the coronavirus has crippled the organization’s social enterprise offering Thai cooking classes to tourists.
Traveling with kids is difficult enough, don’t let meal times be any more stressful than necessary. To help you, we’ve taken the feedback from guests visiting our kids cooking class in Bangkok, to create a free menu to make ordering food for your kids easier on your next trip to Thailand.
When your children enjoy the food in the country you’re visiting, it can change the entire dynamic of your trip. This is especially true for Thailand, where many of the travelers come specifically to enjoy all of the spicy and full-flavored Thai dishes. However, for those new to Thai cuisine or traveling with small children, figuring out what to order can be daunting.
Don’t miss our recent recipe for kid’s pad thai, give it a try at home to start getting your kids acclimated for the big trip to Thailand.
How to Order Thai Food Kids Enjoy
If you’re planning your trip to Bangkok, you may already be thinking about what to order your kids. One of the common issues is ordering food that isn’t going to set flame to the tastebuds of your little ones. There is plenty of delicious Thai food that isn’t spicy, but you may come up with only a short list reading travel blogs and tips from writers who don’t stay in the country long.
You also need to understand spice in Thailand isn’t a novelty like in other countries. There are seldom chili eating competitions nor much bravado associated with your ability to eat spicy food. That’s because spicy food is the norm in Thailand, and not the exception.
Remember the crisis in Thailand when members of a youth football team were trapped deep in a cave? When they asked the trapped students (many of them from marginalized people groups like the ones Courageous Kitchen serves) what they most wanted to eat, they responded, ‘pad krapao’. This well-loved Thai dish can appear on the menu simply as ‘stir fried basil with pork’. However, some English menus may neglect to mention this dish is usually made with a healthy heaping of chili, where even the mildest versions can be a shock to those unaccustomed to spicy food!
A guest in our kids cooking class is focused on helping make ‘pad see ew’ for her family.
Now that may sound delicious to you, but unless your kids are Thai, they may not be craving a face full of chili as soon as they get off the plane. This means knowing a few milder dishes to order can be extremely helpful. Instead of ordering the aforementioned spicy pad krapao, you can simply order a plate of ‘pad see ew‘ (wok-fried rice nooodles with egg and chicken) instead. Since the dish isn’t spicy by nature, it makes it a much better choice and delicious for both parents and adults.
Knowing some Thai dishes is helpful, and any knowledge of Thai language comes in handy too. For instance, no guidebook or travel guide is complete without teaching you the phrase ‘mai ped‘, meaning ‘not spicy’ in Thai. Flip those words around and change the tones slightly, and you can ask ‘ped mai‘ or ‘is this spicy?‘ to people in restaurants or at street food stalls.
Already confused? Don’t worry, this isn’t a Thai lesson. However, we do hope parents understand before arriving, that communicating the needs of your children in local restaurants can be a monumental task. Although Thailand is a major destination for vacationers around the world, limited English ability by Thais can add miscommunication to the growing list of obstacles keeping you from feeding hangry kids.
Free English to Thai Menu for Parents
Kids Travel Menu for Thailand
Don’t struggle to order food for your kids in Thailand any more!
The kids menu isn’t only helpful for people with kids, but useful for anyone with food allergies, aversions to spicy food, and limited knowledge of Thai language.
To help ease communication issues parents are having, we’ve created a special one page kids menu that you can download. The menu is created using dishes common in restaurants around Thailand, that are also friendly for kids because they’re not overly spicy. Some dishes may even be similar to food options you have in your home country.
Of course, not every restaurant will have all of the dishes we’ve listed. However, our hope is that with a little assistance communicating you’ll find that even restaurants who don’t, will often willingly do their best to make something tasty for your kids.
In addition, with each food item we’ve included a brief English description and the corresponding Thai characters, as well as an abbreviated phonetic spelling for assistance pronouncing the words on your own.
Food Allergies in Thailand
Here’s a preview of the free menu, we hope it makes communicating food allergies easier for parents.
Ordering in Thai restaurants takes another leap in difficulty if you’re also working around your child’s allergy. This may mean, for example, trying to prevent peanuts from being added to a dish like pad thai where they are commonly used to garnish the popular noodle dish. For this reason we’ve added a section to the menu download, specifically for making special requests including common food allergies translated into Thai.
Thailand is becoming friendlier for vegan and vegetarian travelers too. Much of this is due to the growth of local businesses offering solely meat free options, or existing restaurants hoping to attract new customers with more accommodating menu items. This is great news if you’re visiting the big cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket. However, when exploring out of the city centers, you should be ready to communicate your dietary restrictions to street food vendors and restaurants you visit.
This is because often Thai food includes what we refer to as ‘sneaky meat’. To get the umami flavors that make the food stand out, cooks are often using meat based sauces and stocks to season food. For example, dishes you may already love such as pad thai and pad see ew are both commonly made with fish sauce. A noodle dish may appear to be meat free, but you can’t assume it is, just because there isn’t any meat cooked in the dish that you can identify easily. Instead, using the right terminology when you order can prevent these problems!
Stir fry sauces in Thailand are often meat based. If vegans and vegetarians are clear in communicating, chefs can use meat free sauces, as in the tofu pad see ew pictured above.
Finally, we know this won’t solve every problem with ordering. You still don’t want to leave home without a smartphone with translation apps and internet access. You can also never underestimate the value of having a local friend. While this simple menu won’t replace your Thai friends, it may make you a little more adventurous on days when you’re not with a guide or friend to give you a hand.
Happy travels to all the parents reading, we hope the entire family enjoys your time in Thailand. If you found this information helpful, please consider making a donation to help us feed and educate those in need.
You’re here because you’re addicted to sticky rice, sweet tropical mango, and everything that comes along with it!
We don’t blame you.
Welcome friend, you’re in a safe place because today the Courageous Kitchen has got a few versions of Thailand’s most renown dessert, mango and sticky rice, to share with everyone.
Guests enjoy making mango and sticky rice in our Bangkok cooking class.
If you’re new here, we’re a nonprofit with a cooking class that raises money to help improve the lives of youth in Bangkok. We do this simply by hosting tourists visiting Bangkok for fun cooking classes. And you guessed it, one of our most requested desserts is the notorious mango and sticky rice. As we’ve cooked it for you over the years, we’ve had fun learning about all the components of the dessert that make it special, and trying different variations of the dessert.
Don’t let the name fool you, making sticky rice is a lot more work than many people know.
A Delicious, but Tedious Dessert
Although the name sounds like you can just slap wet rice on a plate with mango, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The ‘sticky rice’ used by Thais, isn’t just your regular rice gone soggy, but a separate species of rice entirely. Southeast asian glutinous rice is a beast entirely of its own, and if you don’t give the rice the respect it deserves, it may ruin your day (and your kitchen), when it fails to cook up as nicely as you remember from your trip to Thailand.
For starters the rice has to be washed and then soaked for hours. Many people will soak the rice overnight and steam it in the morning. Next, while your steamed rice is hot, you want to add your sweet coconut sauce so that it can be absorbed by the rice for at least thirty minutes. This isn’t to mention getting your mung beans all toasted and ready, and creating a salty version of the coconut sauce to use as a topping.
Not sure what all the fuss is about? Have a gawk at the classic version of mango and sticky rice.
While making the dish overall isn’t hard, you will have to put in some time and attention to the process if you want it to yield great results. Don’t fret though, we’ve included the instructions for classic mango and sticky rice in the pdf download of our recipe book.
Thais are True Mango Connoisseurs
The sticky rice isn’t the only difficult component of this dessert. The mangoes, depending where you live, can be more than troublesome to find. When you do find them, they may be overripe, or just breeds that don’t lend well to slicing nicely to the pairing. This may because the particular fruit is too fibrous (you know those stringy bits you get on the inside that take over). If they’re large like Mexico’s ‘Tommy Atkins’ mangoes they may be too soft, mushy, and overripe before becoming sweet enough.
While many western countries outside of the tropical zone count themselves fortunate to import a few breeds of mango from places like Mexico and India, Thailand is home to over 200 varieties. The biodiversity found in the country for this one particular fruit is astounding, and the way Thais consume them is a reflection of that variety. They’re eaten unripe and crunchy, soft and velvety, and about every combination in between. At times they’re paired with pungent, fishy dipping sauces, and in other instances dipped in a mix of sugar, salt, and lime.
Mango and sticky rice can hold it’s own against your favorite western desserts like chocolate mousse and banana pudding, or have them all together!
You may not be surprised to learn then that mangoes, during harvest season especially, are shockingly cheap in Thailand. One of the fanciest of Thai ‘nam dok mai’ (a thai cultivar whose name means flower nectar) mangoes may fetch a price of 120 baht or more per kilo. But just think, that’s still only about $4 for a whole heap of luxurious mango to stuff in your face.
The cheaper varietals abound, and people in the countryside might have a mango tree or 20 in their orchards. The ubiquity and variety of mangoes available in Thailand, and their pairing with the humble sticky rice is telling. While jasmine rice was tapped for export, and touted by elites, sticky rice on the other hand remained what average people ate from day to day. You can be confident that the mango and sticky rice combination then, wasn’t a five star chef invention, but made it’s way from the lowly countryside, to the notoriety it enjoys today.
Mango and sticky rice, presented sushi style, rolled in a thin crepe and covered in coconut creme.
Sticky Variations of the Dessert to Try
Now that mango and sticky rice has gone around the world, cooks are challenged to put a new spin on the dish. Serving the dish with a unique presentation can be just what’s needed to catch the eye of locals ready to get excited again about the old favorite, and newcomers to Thailand who may be trying the dessert for the first time. This may mean naturally dying the sticky rice until you have a rainbow of rice to serve with your mango, or even giving it a Japanese makeover, by serving it sushi style.
Another abnormally eye-catching version calls for you to do some kitchen voodoo on the mango. You’ll need to slice the top off and carefully etch away at the flesh against the seed of the mango, being careful not to let your knife cut through the thin skin. If you’re skillful enough, you can create enough space in the in mango to begin twisting the seed until it pops out. Now you’ve got a natural bowl, ready to be filled with mango, sticky rice, and any other fruit your heart desires. When we spotted Chef Seng’s stuffed mango and sticky rice on instagram, our faces lit up and we knew we had to give it try.
A new favorite in our Bangkok cooking class, stuffed mango and sticky rice!
So how do you like your mango and sticky rice? Rolled sushi style? Or shoved back into the fruit so the mango becomes a natural bowl? Maybe you’re like us and will always love the classic version.
Whichever one suits you, we hope you’ve learned more about what it takes to put this deliciousness together, and that the best version is one you can enjoy with friends.
Alright sweet tooth friends either get cooking, or get over here to help us eat them all!
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