Massaman Curry Paste

One of the more unique Thai Curry Pastes, Massaman Curry was served to the royalty of Siam for centuries before Siam became Thailand. Dishes made with this curry paste usually involve some sour fruit such as tamarind or pineapple.

This recipe is naturally gluten free.

Watch A Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Massaman Curry Paste:

https://youtu.be/m8WWmAwuJ_A

Ingredients For Massaman Curry Paste

• 3 Tbls Coriander Seeds
• 1 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1 tsp White Peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 1/2 tsp Mace
• 7 Cardamom Pods
• 1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 7 Cloves
• 3 Shallots, Minced
• 1/2 Cup Sliced Garlic
• 5 New Mexico Chiles
• 1/3 Cup Chopped Lemongrass
• 2 Tbls Galangal
• 1 1/2 Tbls Ciantro Root
• 1 1/2 Tbls Shrimp Paste
• 1 tsp Salt

Prepare the Chiles

We’ll remove the stems and seeds from our chiles, cut them into rings and soak them in warm water. We need to let them soak for at least 15 minutes and then we’ll just leave them in the water until we are ready to use them.

Toast the Shrimp Paste

We want to toast the shrimp paste to bring out the goodness of it. We do this by wrappung it in foil and holding it over a lit burner for a few minutes. It will get very fragrant and smoke a little and that’s how you know it is ready. You could toast it in the oven under the broiler if you want.

Sweat the Dry Spices

Once our chiles and shrimp paste are prepared sweat all our dry spices in a dry frying pan over medium heat. We are using a lot of whole spices and sweating them helps to unlock the flavors. They will become fragrant and smoke a little but we want to be careful not to burn them.

Grind the Spices

Once we have sweated the spices we will put them in a spice grinder and grind them to a fine powder.

Grind the Other Ingredients

Now we need to grind up all the other ingredients. This can be a bit difficult to do since we don’t have a lot of liquid to help the process. You can do this in a blender but our spice grinder is actually better for this job. You can use a little of the chile soaking water to help things move but not too much. This can be done in batches and the results mixed together at the end.

Add the Shrimp Paste

We don’ want to forget our shrimp paste so we’ll add it in now and grind it with the wet ingredients.

Combine Everything

We’ll use our spice grinder to combine the wet and dry ingredients until we have a smooth paste. You can do this in batches and just mix all the results together.

Store For Use

You can store the curry paste in a jar in the refrigerator for a couple weeks. We usually use some right away and store the rest in the freezer in two tablespoon cubes.

Our other Curry Paste Recipes:

• Curry Paste Base
• Red Curry Paste
• Yellow Curry Paste
• Curry Powder

Recipes that use Curry Paste:

• Red Curry Chicken
• Red Curry Pork Tenderloin
• Red Curry Salmon
• Yellow Curry Crab
• Crab Stuffed Mushrooms With Yellow Curry Sauce
• Thai Coconut Curry Crab
• Chicken Satay With Peanut Sauce

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