Green Thai Curry Paste

There's no secret that we are a family of heat (and especially curry) lovers. I've always been addicted to spice, and at any given time can be counted on to have no fewer than 3 types of hot sauce in my pantry (I think my current count stands at 6). My leanings tend to go towards southwestern, Mexican or Indian-style chile heat, but my mom has been a bona fide Thai curry fan ever since she visited the country on business.

Obviously, we make our share of Thai-style curried soups and stews around here, and we usually turn to our tried-and-true brand of jarred paste for that key hit of flavour. We probably would be using it still, had the aforementioned vermin in my garden left my chillies alone - but after one too many trips out back to salvage the peppers strewn over the soil (they don't eat them but they love tearing down the stalks!) I knew I had to start doing something with all the peppers in varying stages of ripeness.

Luckily, I also grow a mess of herbs in the garden, which the voles have not touched (fingers crossed!). This year's batch is decidedly "interesting" according to my mom and stepdad, encompassing two types of dill (for pickles, obviously!), catnip, two types of basil (including a to-die-for variety called Emerald Wine), lemon balm and - one of my secret surprises this year, a variety of mint called Chameleon Fish Mint. True to it's name, it does taste somewhat fishy - I liken it to salmon really - and not only does it jazz up tuna salad (or plain old marinara sauce!) but I decided to use it instead of fish sauce to bring the signature hint of flavour that's present in so many Thai recipes. The rest of the mix featured lemon balm to enhance the dried lemongrass I used, and minced Egyptian onion instead of scallions, shallots or plain onions since they really taste like a mix of all of them.

Now, I'm not kidding when I say that this paste is spicy. There's no oil in it, so when you use it you can "bloom" it however you wish (coconut oil or coconut milk are the two we tend to use), but I would not recommend a spoonful as a taste test! In fact, we added a touch to ground chicken and made a "taster meatball" to test the flavour - those might become a new "thing" here!

Shared with Gluten Free Fridays

Green Thai Curry Paste
Makes ~1 cup, 16 (1 tbsp) servings
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp white pepper
6 green chilies, minced
2 thai chiles (red or green), minced
½ large green pepper, chopped
4 cloves minced garlic
¼ cup minced Egyptian or green onions
1 tbsp freeze dried lemongrass
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 cup minced cilantro
¼ cup minced fish mint (optional)
¼ cup minced lemon balm
1 tbsp tamari
2 tbsp lime juice

1. Puree all ingredients until smooth.
2. Store in the fridge up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 4.8
Total Fat: 0.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 63.7 mg
Total Carbs: 1.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.2 g
Protein: 0.3 g