Thai Red Curry, Improved

I did a little more experimenting with Thai red curry. In my previous recipe, I used Asian Kitchen red curry paste. If you follow the recipe on the label, you end up having to add much more of the paste than the recipe recommends. It tasted too bland so had to add sambal olek (the Chinese red chili sauce) and soya sauce because we want our food to be a little more tasty and spicy. The jar of paste lasts you maybe two meals so we went through it pretty quickly.
For whatever reason, I couldn't find the red curry paste when I needed it so I tried making the paste at home. It turns out that you do not really need it, as long as you have fresh lemongrass, Thai ginger (galangal), 1 red jalapeno and Thai basil, which will all help add alot of the Thai flavors. It turned out just as good as I made it last time so I thought I would share the recipe.

Step 1. Make the red curry paste by grinding the following ingredients together with some water until you have a chutney consistency.
2 red jalapenos (or you can use a few Thai red chilies)
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 stalk of lemongrass, diced (only use the root, not the leafy grassy parts at the end)
1 tsp lime zest
juice of 1/2 lime

Step 2. Chop the green onions, yellow onions, red and green bell peppers, and shitake mushrooms and keep it to one side.

Step 3. I used extra firm tofu. If you are using it, you have to drain the water out of the package. Then put a paper towel on a plate. Place the tofu on the plate, followed by another paper towel and another plate. This will drain out all of the water from the tofu. You have to do this atleast an hour before you are ready to cook. When you are ready, cut it into four equal long strips.

Step 4: Heat up some oil in pot. Add the red curry paste first and sautee for a few minutes. Then add one can of coconut milk, 1 more red jalapeno (chopped into circles), 2 tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 lemongrass stalk (chopped in big chunks so that you can take it out at the end), 3 tbsp of soya sauce and 2-3 tbsp sambal olek (the Chinese red chili paste with the green lid). Cook on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 5: While that is cooking, shallow fry the tofu with some oil in a skillet. When the bottom is golden brown, flip it over and cook other side. I rotated it four times so that each side was cooked.

Step 6: Once the tofu is cooked, sautee the veggies in some oil along with some more ginger and garlic until tender.

Step 7: After the milk mixture has been cooking for about 10-15 minutes, add the cooked tofu and sauteed veggies along with some chopped cilantro and/or Thai basil and cook for 5 more minutes to let the flavors come together. Adjust seasoning per taste.

Step 8: Serve red curry with brown rice and a side Asian salad. Remember to either fish out the lemongrass before serving or tell whoever is eating to watch out for the big chunks in their plate!

This recipe is given to you with the improvements that I would make the next time around. The sauce needed more ginger and garlic so that is why I sauteed more with the veggies. You can just add more from the beginning in the chutney if you want. I forgot to add the brown sugar so that was definitely missing. It was kind of spicy (yet again) so I would recommend only adding 2 tbsp of the sambal olek. You can always add more when you are eating if you want. We also found it kind of lemony, but I think when you add the brown sugar, then the flavors will balance out in the end. Other than that, we loved it! Enjoy!