Thai Yellow Curry

After consuming bowl after bowl of delicious yellow curry at the Thai restaurant in the neighborhood, I realized I needed to learn how to make it myself. I've tried a few recipes here and there and never a real success. Until now!

First make the paste, you can prep it ahead. In fact, I think I will buy the ingredients in bulk and make paste to freeze.

After you've got the paste, making the curry is a snap (with a pressure cooker of course). Just fry onions, add paste and fry, then add the veggies, coconut milk, broth and cook.

Thai Yellow Curry Paste
1. Toast spices in a dry pan, shake occasionally over medium heat until fragrant:

3 tea cumin powder
1 tea coriander powder
1/2 tea ground cinnamon
1 tea turmeric
1 tea paprika (I used Hungarian sweet)
1/2 tea cloves, ground

2. Chop by hand, then grind in food processor the wet ingredients:

1 shallot
1 small stalk lemon grass
4-5 cloves garlic
3 slender red chilis (thai)
4 kaffir lime leaves (chiffonade first)

3. Add toasted spices from #1 into food processor. Also add:

1/4 tea red pepper flakes
1-2 tea dried galangal

4. Transfer to a mortar/pestle and mash. This takes your dry paste and releases the oils, which improves flavor. Add a pinch of salt to help the grinding process.



5. Add liquids:
1/2 tea fish sauce
1/2 tea oyster sauce
1 tea brown sugar (or palm sugar)
1 tea sesame oil (or peanut oil)

Save for using in curry recipes.

Thai Yellow Curry with Green Pepper, Sweet Potatoes and Shrimp
Fry in olive oil until browning:
1/2 yellow onion, chopped

Add 1/2 C yellow curry paste (above) and fry until fragrant.

Add 1 can coconut milk and 1/2 - 1 C vegetable broth. Add chopped vegetables:

4 small sweet potatoes/yams, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 green pepper, cut into 1 inch chunks

Pressure cook until veggies are done, 4-5 minutes for yams. I use this fabulous website for vegetable cooking times in the pressure cooker.

When finished cooking, open lid and add:
1-2 tea brown sugar
raw shrimp


Stir over heat until shrimp are cooked. Serve over basmati rice.