Thai Mussaman Curry Paste

1. Remove the seeds from the dried chillies and discard. Soak the chillies in hot water for about 15 minutes.
2. Trim the root end from the lemon grass stalk and slice the lower 5cm / 2in of the stalk into small pieces.
3. Place the chopped lemon grass in a dry wok and then add the chopped shallots, garlic and galangal and dry-fry for a moment or two.
4. Stir in the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves and peppercorns and dry-fry over a low heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring constantly. Spoon the mixture into a large mortar.
5. Drain the chillies and add them to the mortar. Grind finely, using the pestle, then add the prepared shrimp paste (blachan), salt, sugar and oil and pound again until the mixture forms a rough paste. Use as required, then spoon any leftover paste into a jar, seal tightly and store in the fridge for up to 4 months.

COOK'S TIPS

• Preparing a double or larger quantity of paste in a food processor makes the blending of the ingredients much easier and the paste will be smoother.
• For the best results, before you start to process the ingredients, slice them up in the following order: galangal, lemon grass, fresh ginger and turmeric, chillies, nuts, shrimp paste, garlic and shallots. Add some of the oil (or coconut cream if that is to be your frying medium) to the ingredients in the food processor if the mixture is a bit sluggish. If you do this, however, remember to use less oil or coconut cream when you fry the curry paste to eliminate the raw taste of the individual ingredients before adding the meat, poultry, fish or vegetables.
• Shrimp paste (blachan) is made from fermented shrimps. It can be bought in Asian stores. Unless it is to be fried as part of a recipe, it is always lightly cooked before use. If you have a gas cooker, simply mould the shrimp paste on to the end of a metal skewer and rotate over a low to medium gas flame, or heat under the grill of an electric cooker, until the outside begins to look crusty, but not burnt.

Makes about 170g / 6oz.