Curry Paste Primer: An explanation of Thai curry pastes

Prik kaeng kua พริกแกงคั่ว

The foundation for other red curry pastes, you can find the ingredients in prik kaeng kua present in all standard red curry pastes. This curry paste lacks dried spices but includes dried chillies, galangal, lemongrass, garlic, shallot, and shrimp paste (kapi). Makrut lime peel and coriander root will usually also be included. All of the curry pastes below, unless otherwise noted, include the ingredients of prik kaeng kua.

This curry paste forms the base of many a Thai recipe, including the sweet curry stir fried dish pad prik king; the curry custard that is hor mok; and kaeng tae po, a sweet and sour coconut curry.

Prik kaeng choo chee พริกแกงฉู่ฉี่

This curry paste is similar to prik kaeng kua. Sometimes the ingredients are the same. They may also include white peppercorns. High Heel Gourmet says prik kaeng choo chee traditionally includes toasted coconut, though recipes in many Thai and English cookbooks I have do not include this.

Prik kaeng pet พริกแกงเผ็ด

This is effectively kaeng kua with a few additional spices, typically cumin, coriander seeds and white peppercorns. Prik kaeng kua and prik kaeng pet are probably the most familiar of the red curry pastes, the ones you are likely to buy premade in supermarkets.

Prik kaeng panang (not Penang, which is the name of a Malaysian island) includes peanuts in the curry paste. I have seen some recipes recipes that include toasted spices like cumin and coriander seeds, but what sets this red curry paste apart is the addition of peanuts.

Otherwise known as yellow curry paste, I think many would be surprised to find prik kaeng karee listed as a red curry paste. Remember when I said the difference between red and green curry paste is the colour of the chillies used? Yellow curry paste includes dried red curries in the paste, as well as turmeric, and hence the resulting colour shown by the curry. Kaeng karee is an Indian influenced curry that translates as “curry curry,” where kaeng is a reference to Thai style curry and karee to the Anglo-Indian word for curry. The Indian mark is seen with the addition of more dried spices, which can include fennel, mace, curry powder, and cardamom (among others). This curry paste also includes ginger.

Kaeng massaman is a curry of Muslim origin, either by Persian traders or within Muslim Thai society domestically. The curry paste marries Thai ingredients like lemongrass and shrimp paste with plenty of heady dried spices (like cumin, coriander, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves).

Sidebar: Some Southern Muslim Thai recipes for massaman curry I have seen use only dried spices, with no curry paste base.

This is a fiery Southern curry paste with lots of turmeric that can include both fresh and dried chillies. Black peppercorns are more commonly used than white. It is often quite lemongrass-heavy. This paste is used in a dry curry, one that is stir-fried without the addition of coconut milk or water.

I lump prik kaeng som and prik kaeng luang together since they are regional variants of the same style of curry paste. The pastes include, at a minimum, fresh and/or dried chillies (of an incendiary variety), shrimp paste, salt, and shallots. Garlic and/or krachai (Chinese keys/fingerroot) and/or makrut lime zest are frequently included. Prik kaeng lueang is the Southern version and includes turmeric root and sometimes lemongrass.

Otherwise known as jungle curry paste, prik kaeng pa (the word pa means jungle) is not dissimilar to prik kaeng pet in composition, but the curry paste is boiled instead of fried. Hotter dried chillies may also be favoured over the typically less hot long dried chillies put to use in milder red curry pastes. Some cooks include fresh chillies in the paste.

This curry paste lays the groundwork for what is arguably Northern Thailand's most well known curry. This Indian-via-Myanmar-to-Thailand curry paste employs the usual ingredients in kaeng kua, but with the addition of a masala spice blend. The curry paste can sometimes include ginger, but it is more usual to add ginger to the curry itself.

This Southern curry paste is designed for a curry made with tai pla, or fermented fish entrails. I include it because there is a vegan version (just as there is a vegan shrimp paste). Black peppercorns are favoured here, as in many Southern pastes, and as with other curry pastes from this region there is of course also fresh turmeric added. Prik kaeng tai pla might use only small, spicy, dried bird's eye chillies or a combination of dried and fresh.

Prik khao soi is the base of the famous Northern Thai curry noodle dish. Khao soi is Muslim Chinese dish with origins in Yunnan province, so aromatics like black cardamom and ginger are included. Turmeric appears in the paste and/or in the curry soup. Curry powder is another popular ingredient, though were you to purchase a bowl from a Muslim Thai vendor it would likely be devoid of this blended spice.

This curry paste, the base for a popular Thai vegetable soup (still considered a curry because there is a paste), is quite simple. Shallots, white peppercorns, and krachai are typical, but garlic, shrimp paste, and chillies are often present. Dried or fresh cooked fish are often added, but vegan versions use mushrooms. Chillies are not always included, making prik kaeng liang less straightforward to categorise.

Many Thai dishes that are not curries utilise a sort of paste in the cooking process. I think it's worth talking about this given the often stated distinguishing factor between Thai soups and curries is the latter typically contains a paste. An example of a dish that uses a paste that isn't a curry paste is pad cha. At the very simplest, fresh chillies and garlic would be pounded into a rough paste (sometimes with additional ingredients like white peppercorns and coriander root). I use only pounded garlic and chillies in my pad cha, but other recipes call for aromatics like galangal and lemongrass too.

Curry pastes with ginger

You might find recipes written by bloggers (and sometimes even published authors with cookbooks) who call for ginger in Thai curry pastes as a substitute for galangal. While not an acceptable alternative (and IMO a way to gauge how little someone has delved into understanding Thai cuisine – if I saw someone call for this substitute I would not take them seriously as a food writer), there are a handful of curry pastes with heavy foreign influence that do include ginger in the blend.

• Yellow curry paste – prik kaeng karee
• Khao soi curry paste – prik kaeng khao soi
• Burmese Thai curry paste – prik kaeng hunglay (sometimes)

Curry pastes that don't keep well

These curry pastes utilise fresh chillies in their makeup. They are best consumed within a few days of making because beyond that the freshness imparted by the chillies is lost. Recipes for some of these curry pastes can vary. I have seen plenty of jungle curry pastes without fresh chillies for instance, but some people do include them.

• Sour curry paste – prik kaeng som
• Southern sour curry paste – prik kaeng lueang
• Green curry paste - prik kaeng keow wan
• Paste for Southern dry curry – prik kaeng kua kling
• Southern fermented fish curry paste – prik kaeng tai pla (sometimes)
• Jungle curry paste – prik kaeng pa (sometimes)

Personal notes