Green curry paste

A special tribute for Nick who gave me the recipe. I made a couple of modification and added my own touch.

Ingrédients:

4 green chilies
4 small red chilies
1 lemongrass stalk
1 small onion
3 shallots
9 garlic cloves
1 inch fresh galangal
1 inch fresh ginger
1 bunch of fresh coriander
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp white pepper
8 kaffir lime leaves
1 lime
2 tsp shrimp paste (terasi, belacan)
8 leaves of thai basil
400 ml coconut milk


Preparation:
Put the shrimp paste in a aluminum foil (or in a banana leave) and heat it in the oven for 5 min.
The use of a mortar and a pestle is almost mandatory if you want a full success of this recipe. It's up to you I mean, if you're ready to receive bad critics about the texture and stuff like that, use a robot ! Besides, grinding the spices and the herbs is really fun, smells good and can be a good workout !
At the and you should get a nice and smooth paste.

Start to crush the roots (peeled ginger & galangal), 5 of the kaffir lime leaves, the coriander roots (keep aside the leaves) and the chilies (seedless) in the mortar.

Add all the seeds (coriander, cumin, pepper) and keep on crushing.
Add then the shirmp paste, the lime zest, the lime juice, the garlic clobes and the shallots.

Crush, crush, crush until you get a beautiful paste, bright and smooth.

Cooking:
Cut the onion, fried it in a saucepan with oil.
Add the curry paste and fried it for a couple of minutes.

Add the meat and grill it with the paste.
Squash the lemongrass stalk and combine it in the saucepan.

Pour the coconut milk, cover and put a low heat for 10 min.

Add the leaves (kaffir lime and basil), cover it and cook it for 10 more min.

Add the veggies and/or shrimp/fish and cook it covered for another 10 min.
Then open up the saucepan and cook it for 10 min or more, until the sauce is thick enough for you.
If you leave it cover, you will end up with a liquid sauce. It really depends on your taste and what you're looking for. I reckon that both are really good and worths to be try !


Dégustation
What I like the most in this recipe, is the crushing and squashing moment.
Evertyhing smells so good, emanation and fragrance of the ingredients wake yours senses up !
It's fresh, flowered, spiced up, chilied, simply exquisite !
Yes, I admit, it can also be very very spicy ... but that's what it's good I guess !