Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Make An Easy Red Curry Sauce

The curry's color is determined by the color of the chilies used.


Because of the complexity of the flavor of red curry sauces, some may believe that making a red curry sauce requires an abundance of time and ingredients. The phenomenon of the sauce aisles of supermarkets lined with curry sauces only contributes to this misconception. Making an easy red curry sauce is completely doable for anyone with a basic kitchen setup and a blender.


Instructions


1. Blend the curry sauce's dry ingredients together. Put the garlic, cumin, chilies, lemongrass and ginger in the blender. Blend the ingredients until a dry powder-like substance forms and there are no large chunks present. Use any proportions of these ingredients; changing proportions will change the flavor of the curry. For example, for a spicer curry, add more chilies.


2. Add the lime juice and fish sauce to the mixture. Pour the juice and sauce into the blender. Blend the juice and sauce together with the already-blended dry ingredients. Blend ingredients in proportion to taste. Typically, the amount lime juice is much more than the amount of fish sauce. Add enough liquid to where a wet paste is formed. It should be more of a liquid than a paste. The paste may seem rather liquidy, but some of the liquid will evaporate during cooking.








3. Heat sesame oil in the saucepan. Turn the heat to medium-low and heat a thin layer of sesame oil in the pan. Heat until you can smell a fragrant sesame scent.


4. Add the curry mixture to the oil. Pour the mixture from the blender directly into the pan, scraping any pieces that stick to the inside of the blender in as well.








5. Add the coconut milk to the curry sauce. More coconut milk equals a milder sauce; less coconut milk equals a spicier sauce.


6. Let the sauce simmer for 10 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.


7. Use the sauce. Either use the sauce directly by adding ingredients for a curry dish straight into the sauce or remove the sauce from heat and store in the refrigerator

Tags: curry sauce, coconut milk, Blend ingredients, blender Blend, coconut milk equals, curry sauces