Prik Gaeng Pak Dtai (Southern Thai Curry Paste)

Prik gaeng pak dtai, a Southern Thai curry paste, is the foundation of many curries and stir fries. It’s quite similar to a prik gaeng khua or “khua-style" red curry paste, which typically includes dried red spur chiles, lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime zest, coriander roots, garlic, shallots, and shrimp paste, but it’s a little spicier, as the spur chiles (prik cheefa) are swapped out for spicier Thai chiles (prik jinda), both dried and fresh, and a rather large amount of ground black peppercorns are added, too. The addition of fresh turmeric stains the paste a yellowy-orange hue, in addition to imparting its characteristic bitter earthiness.

Pounding, Grinding, or Puréeing: The Best Way to Make Prik Gaeng Pak Dtai

Since this recipe makes four ounces (1/2 cup) of curry paste, a relatively small amount of paste but the equivalent of a can of store-bought curry paste, we suggest going the traditional route and using a pestle and mortar; the small amount of ingredients would mostly stick to the sides of a standard-size food processor or blender. However, since it calls for dried chiles and spices, you can use a spice grinder to pulverize those and save you some time. When pounding the other ingredients, it’s important to focus your energy on pounding the concave sides of the mortar, which forces the pestle to grind and pound at the same time; avoid constantly pounding directly in the center of the mortar.

However, if you want to scale up the recipe to make a much larger batch of paste, the high moisture content of the chiles will work to your advantage, as it makes it easy to purée the ingredients in a blender. The paste can then be divided into four-ounce portions and frozen for months. That said, I do recommend making this recipe in a mortar and pestle to get a feel for the process and the desired texture of the paste. With a little practice, pounding a curry paste doesn’t take all that much effort, especially if you follow some basic technique principles.

Mortar and Pestle Tips

• Make sure to thinly slice the fresh aromatics before adding them to the mortar; smaller pieces are much easier to process into a paste.
• Add only one ingredient at a time to the mortar (because of the small quantities and comparable texture, shallots and garlic can be added at the same time), and don't move on to the next one until you have fully pulverized the latest addition; overcrowding the mortar will just slow you down and make a mess.
• Use the weight of the pestle to your advantage; start by simply tapping the ingredients with the heavy pestle to crush them, and then move on to more energetic pounding.
• Embrace the process; once you get the paste going, it becomes easier to incorporate each subsequent ingredient.
• Give yourself some arm relief by grinding whole spices separately in a spice grinder before incorporating them into the paste in the mortar and pestle.

A Store-Bought Shortcut

If you’d like to doctor up store-bought curry paste to approximate this freshly made one, I suggest purchasing either red curry paste or khua red curry paste, and then pounding together the quantities of fresh turmeric, ground dried red Thai chiles, and ground black peppercorns indicated in the curry paste recipe in a mortar and pestle, in that order. You can then pound one can of prepared paste into that mixture.

With your paste in hand, whether freshly made or freshly doctored up, you can use it to make my recipe for gaeng khua prik krong moo, or Southern Thai curry with pork ribs.