Thai curries are not the same as Indian curry. In Thailand, they cook their Thai curry dishes for a much shorter time and use more fresh herbs and garlic and fewer dry spices then in Indian curry. Different Thai curries are used for different dishes, though the most famous is 'prig kee nu'- a very short, small green and red pepper. Though being about one inch in length, this is the hottest of the Thai curries family.
It is widely spread all over the world and can be found in any Chinatown shop. The ability to be stored frozen for years makes this the most popular of other Thai curries. Buy a large quantity and wash the pepper thoroughly, then let it air dry then put in a freezer bag and freeze until you are ready to use it. It is a lot easier to slice when it is frozen. Just take amount of Thai curries you need each time before using.
Other types of Thai curries- essential parts of any dish in Thailand are 'Prig chee fah' and 'Prig yoorg'. The first, whose name literally means pointing toward sky chili, is not very hot and often used for its color and spice. Being about 3 to 5 inches in length, this kind of Thai curries comes in green and red. The latter Thai curries type is pale green and not hot at all.
Variations of curry pastes are surprisingly numerous. Gaeng massaman (masamam), gaeng phanaeng (panang), gaeng phet (red), and gaeng leuang (yellow), are just a few of the many types. But, speaking roughly, Thai curries can be water-based and coconut milk-based.
The most typical water-based is sour curry often prepared with fish. The sourness comes from tamarind but a little limejuice also works. Bear in mind, that searching for Thai curries, note that often times the water-based curries are categorized with soups. This is because not all gaeng are spicy Thai curries.
Coconut curries are especially popular because of the proliferation of coconut trees. Thai curries based on coconut are numerous! Red, yellow, green and masamam are the most well known curries. The key ingredients in Thai curry pastes are mostly wet and fragrant: fresh chilies, lemon grass, galangal, garlic, shallot, kaffir lime, cilantro roots, and shrimp paste. Needless to say that all Thai curries are extremely delicious and spicy like from Amarin Thai cuisine.
Well, the basic ingredients of Thai curries and curry paste are dried red chili peppers, whole cloves of garlic, sea salt, fresh lemon grass, fresh turmeric for color, and shrimp paste (ka-pee).
You will find most published curry paste recipes with many more ingredients added to this basic recipe, but you can make a delicious simple curry with just these few ingredients.
The curry dishes of Thailand have no direct equivalent in Western food, making it hard to tell exactly how to serve and eat a dish. To eat curry as we eat soup is inappropriate because Thai curries are packed full of intense spices, herbs and hot chilies. Thai curries are usually eaten spooned over plain steamed jasmine rice- this helps to cut the heat and the intensity of the flavors.