Panang Curry Paste

Celticevergreen's Note:

A lot of people find comfort and time savings using a prepared curry paste while this recipe is easy and keeps awhile in the refrigerator. Add to prepared noodles or stir into a coconut milk mixture. Use as you would prepared curry paste even though this one will be fresher.

• Total Time: 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1.6666666 cups

• 1 teaspoon sambal oelek
• 2 teaspoons lemongrass
• 1 teaspoon ground caraway
• 1 ½ teaspoons garlic , chopped
• 3 stalks fresh cilantro , with stem
• ¼ cup lime juice
• 1 cup tomato paste
• ½ tablespoon salt and pepper
• 1⁄3; cup vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Put everything into a food processor and blend until smooth. There will be green flecks from the cilantro. Taste, it should be tomato with a sharp after-bite of “heat”. If it is too acid from the tomato paste, add more salt and pepper. Maybe it’s not hot enough, add more sambal. If it’s not herby enough, then add more cilantro and blend again. The ground caraway gives that low, back of the tongue smoothness to the curry. If you don’t taste that, then add more caraway.
2. So, you really should be able to taste all the ingredients both separately and as a whole, that is, you will be able to identify the flavors as being what they are within the context of the whole of the panang paste. Remember, this is the base for the dish, so it is going to be intense.