Thai curry pastes galore!
The secret to a good curry, our Thai cooking teachers repeatedly emphasized, is in the curry paste. A curry paste can make or break a curry - which would partially explain why the green chicken curry I'd tried to make at home in the past didn't taste anything like the green curries in Thailand. So - for curry paste. In class, we made the Massaman curry paste - but I managed to convince them to give me their Penang, Green and Red curry paste recipes too. So, below, everything you need for a good curry. I will list the ingredients for the different curries one by one, and the instructions (which are essentially the same for all of them) will follow below. Massaman Curry Paste 8 big dried red chilis (skin only, seeds removed), finely chopped 8 small dried red chilis, cut into pieces, seeds and all (so don't remove the seeds!) 4 slices (of approximately 1 x 2cm) kaffir fruit skin (or 2 tsp, i...