Massaman Curry Paste

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Massaman Curry Paste packs a wonderful, deep, complex, yet mellow, flavour punch. Massaman curries originated in Thailand and are slow cooked, coconut milk based curries, loaded with potatoes and fall apart meat – normally beef or lamb. They are mildly spicy but with complex, deep, layers of flavour.

Roast the spices, onion and garlic

Unique to this curry paste is that all the delicious spices, the onion and the garlic are roasted before incorporating into the fabulous paste. This adds another layer and depth of flavour to this classic dish. Traditionally these would have been roasted over a fire. However, not many of us have fires to do this these days. Instead, they are either dry roasted in a pan or roasted in the oven. I dry roast the spices in a pan but roast the onions and garlic in the oven. Roasting them in the oven not only ensures that you deepen the flavours, it draws out the sweetness and they become very soft. This makes them much easier to puree into a beautiful paste.

Are the ingredients difficult to find?

Full disclosure – there are a lot of ingredients and, although you may be able to get them all in a large supermarket, a trip to an Asian delicatessen may also be necessary. If this is not possible, I have suggested some alternative replacement ingredients.

Once you have all the ingredients however, the paste is actually very quick and easy to make. It also lasts a long time in the fridge and freezes wonderfully, so it is worth making a double or triple batch. The actual curry itself is very quick and easy to make, if you have some of this incredible paste to hand.

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How to make Massaman Curry Paste

Collect all your ingredients together:

• vegetable oil
• heads of garlic
• peeled red onion, cut into large chunks
• dried red chillies
• cumin seeds (Or use ground cumin)
• coriander seeds (Or use ground coriander)
• black peppercorns
• cloves
• ground cardamom (Or grind the seeds from cardamom pods)
• white peppercorns (Or replace with black peppercorns)
• ground cinnamon
• lemongrass, trimmed and roughly chopped (Or use equivalent lemon grass paste. See bottle for details.)
• galangal, sliced – no need to peel (Or use equivalent galangal paste. See bottle for details.)
• shrimp paste (Or use anchovy)
• fine salt

How to make it:

1. The garlic: slice the top quarters off the whole bulbs of garlic. Put each garlic in the centre of a piece of foil. Loosely gather the foil around the garlic and pour over ½ teaspoon of vegetable oil over each bulb.
2. Seal the foil around the top of the garlic and put in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool in the foil.
3. The onions: put the peeled onions in the centre of another piece of foil. Loosely gather the foil around the onions and pour over 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil.
4. Seal the foil around the top of the onions and put in the oven for 30 – 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool in the foil.
5. The chillis: put the dried chillies in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 30 minutes to soften.
6. The paste: heat your frying pan to medium hot and add the cumin, coriander, black peppercorns, cloves, cardamom, white peppercorns and cinnamon. Cook for 15 – 20 seconds, stirring, until fragrant. Tip into a spice grinder and process until they are a powder. Transfer to the food processor.
7. Now prepare lemongrass and galangal and transfer to the food processor:
   • lemongrass – trimmed and roughly chopped
   • galangal – sliced
   • Blitz until finely chopped.
8. Now add remaining ingredients:
   • remove the stems from the softened dried chillies and add
   • shrimp paste
   • salt
   • squeeze the garlic confit out of the cloves into the food processor
   • add the roast onions.
9. Blitz your paste until smooth. You may need to stop the processor from time to time and scrape down the sides of the jug/bowl.
10. Alternatively freeze. I use 100g in my Beef Massaman Curry for 4 people and always make at least a double portion of paste. I weigh it into 100g portions and freeze. I freeze them in silicone muffin trays and transfer the frozen pastes to bags when solid.
11. Transfer to a sterilised jam jar, seal and store in the fridge.

NB You may find it easier to use a hand held blender

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Made this recipe?

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