What is Thai Red Curry | What are the different types of popular Thai Curry

Learn about Thai Curry paste and the difference in Thai and Indian curry. Make your own Red curry paste.

Curry is a stew-like dish which contains a lot of herbs and spices to give an extremely good flavor. These days Indian and Thai currys are popular throughout the world.

What is Thai Curry? How is it different from the Indian curry?

Curry is called gaeng phet in Thai. In Thai gaeng means liquid and refers to both soups and curries and phet means hot. A curry in Thailand is made by first making the curry paste. This curry paste is a mixture of freshly ground herbs and spices. Thai curry paste is a wet paste made of mainly fresh herbs and other ingredients. In fact, many a dry aromatic spices, that are prominent in Indian curries are used sparingly in Thai cuisine.Thai curry is cooked for a much shorter time and use more fresh herbs and garlic and fewer dry spices than a typical Indian curry. Thai curries in general also tend to be more thinner or soupy than Indian curries. The only two curry dishes in Thailand that are based mainly on dried herbs and spices, rather then fresh ones, are Massaman and Panang curry.

According to my understanding, the main difference in flavor comes from the kind of herbs and spices used to make a curry paste. Minute things like using fresh turmeric instead of powdered, can also alter the taste of a curry remarkably. Like in India, curry is consumed almost daily in Thailand. The curry paste is made by using common ingredients that are easily available (fresh chilies, lemon grass, galangal (fresh root ginger), garlic, shallot, kaffir lime leaves, coriander roots, and shrimp paste (kapee) etc). These herbs and spices contribute not only toward the flavor of the dish but also have medicinal properties. So that’s a two way benefit. Curry is then eaten with rice. Such a meal comes very economical and easy to prepare. Not to mention it is a healthy meal as well. A good combination of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

Types of Thai Curry

Thai coconut-based curries are numerous and here are a few well known ones

* Thai Red curry also known as gaeng phet
* Green curry known as gaeng kiow wahn
* Yellow curry known as gaeng leuang
* Panang curry known as gaeng phanaeng
* and Masamam curry known as gaeng massaman.

The typical Thai red curry has a good balance of hot, sweet, sour, salty and bitter taste. The hotness can be controlled by monitoring the type and number of chilies added to the paste. The hotness is cut down further by adding coconut milk as well. Palm sugar is usually used to give that little sweetness.

Recipe for homemade Thai red curry paste

* 3-4 shallots (chopped)
* 1 stalk of Lemon grass (3 inches from the root)
* 2-4 red chilies (to taste)
* 3 cloves garlic
* 1 inch piece of galangal or fresh root ginger
* 1 Tsp Cumin powder
* 2 Tbsp Coriander powder
* 3 Tbsp Fish sauce
* 1 kaffir Lime leaf
* 1 Tsp Shrimp paste
* 1 Tsp Palm sugar (or brown sugar)
* 2 Tbsp Red Chili powder (to taste, use a mild chili powder to get the red color if you want)
* 1/4 - 1/2 cup Coconut milk (enough to blend the ingredients)

Blend all the ingredients to a paste by using little coconut milk at a time.Sneak a taste and make adjustment if any.Here's a Thai red chicken curry recipe for your Thai red curry paste. Here's a

Thai red chicken curry recipe for your Thai red curry paste.

Here are some more quick easy chicken recipes

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