Curry Paste

Curry pastes are an essential ingredient in Asian cooking and over the years, they have become a store cupboard staple in Western kitchens. Read on to learn more about the different types of curry paste and how you can use them at home.

What is curry paste?

Curry paste is an easy and delicious way to add flavour and spice to your dishes. Curry pastes are made by blending or pounding ingredients in a pestle and mortar to create a flavour base for your chosen curry. Curry pastes often include ground and dried spices, chilli peppers, onions and garlic. The ingredients vary depending on the recipe and the country or region the curry paste originates from.

It's important not to confuse curry paste with curry powder, which has a different flavour profile and is a dry ingredient.

What is the difference between curry paste and curry powder?

Curry paste is a blend of spices and other ingredients that has the texture of a thick purée.

Curry powder is a dry spice blend.

The benefit of curry paste over powder is that it can contain additional ingredients such as garlic, ginger, galangal or even tomato. This means you can acheive a very different flavour profile from simple curry powder.

Curry pastes are sometimes used alongside curry powder in the same recipe.

What types of curry paste are there?

Curry pastes come in many different flavours, depending on where they are from. Indian curry pastes have a very different flavour to curry pastes from Thailand and Malaysia.

Some popular brands of curry paste include Ferns, Rempapa and Mae Ploy.

Our curry paste collection includes pastes for Balinese spiced tamarind curry, fiery vindaloo and Japanese curry sauce to serve with katsu. We also have Thai curry pastes for making fragrant red, green, yellow, penang and massaman curries.

How to use curry paste in cooking?

Follow a recipe or the package instructions to create an authentic curry at home. Some curry pastes are simmered in coconut milk, while others are fried before chopped tomatoes are added. Japanese curry paste blocks are dissolved in hot water to create a thick curry sauce to serve with breaded pork or chicken (katsu). Thai curry pastes can also be used to flavour soups, stir-fries, noodles and rice dishes.

Once opened, store the jar of curry paste in the refrigerator and use it as directed on the packaging (often within one or two months).