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pepperhead212 said:
I see more curry paste in Indonesian recipes, and that recipe just says 1 tb curry. So maybe that was the original recipe.
Click to expand...
Is indonesian curry paste similar to the Mae Ploy thai curry pastes?

I know of Thai curry pastes, and Indian curries. . .is Indonesian curry different from them two?

I must know to expand my palette! 👅

Also. . .does anyone what the idea behind curry powder is? I think it's British, but it seems like a bit of a "lessening the complexity" of a wide range of ingredients and flavors. (I know garam masala is used tons in India, but I was always told that "curry powder" would be like the American version of "stew" powder. There's just so many stews and it's kind of making "dumbing down" the idea of stew itself.)

Is there even a reason to buy "curry powder" anyway?
 

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Indonesian curry paste is not similar to Thai curry paste

Its actually not clear to me what is meant by Indonesian curry paste.
I think they mean either a bumbu or sambal when they speak of Indonesian curry paste
A bumbu is a spice mixture made for a specific dish, so you get: Bumbu babi kecap, bumbu nasi goreng, bumbu rendang, bumbu kari etc etc.
Sambal is a spicy condiment that comes in all forms and shapes as well
 
BAPyessir6 said:
Is indonesian curry paste similar to the Mae Ploy thai curry pastes?

I know of Thai curry pastes, and Indian curries. . .is Indonesian curry different from them two?

I must know to expand my palette! 👅

Also. . .does anyone what the idea behind curry powder is? I think it's British, but it seems like a bit of a "lessening the complexity" of a wide range of ingredients and flavors. (I know garam masala is used tons in India, but I was always told that "curry powder" would be like the American version of "stew" powder. There's just so many stews and it's kind of making "dumbing down" the idea of stew itself.)

Is there even a reason to buy "curry powder" anyway?
Click to expand...
The Indonesian pastes I remember were called Sambal, and some were much like Thai curry pastes, but less complex, as a rule, and many sambal were more like a thick dip sauce - sambal was just a catch-all term. In a lot of recipes I remember them starting the ingredients list with "For The Flavoring Paste", and the ingredients would be very similar to those sambals, usually with shrimp paste, some type(s) of peppers, usually fresh, sometimes shallots and/or garlic, sometimes ginger or galangal, sometimes daun salam, sometimes candlenuts, and whatever else would be unique to that dish. Rendang is a dish that starts with one of these pastes, usually with some spices added, and the foods are cooked in some coconut milk with the paste, and cooked uncovered, stirring often, until the foods are coated with the paste. I once made an unusual vegetarian version for a friend (of course, I ate a bunch, too. :LOL:), that had small - 1-1½" - potatoes in it, in which the potatoes were added in the last third or so of cooking; the same thing I do with chicken pieces.

Here are the two best books I have for Indonesian cooking:

 
Last edited:
Badjak said:
Indonesian curry paste is not similar to Thai curry paste

Its actually not clear to me what is meant by Indonesian curry paste.
I think they mean either a bumbu or sambal when they speak of Indonesian curry paste
A bumbu is a spice mixture made for a specific dish, so you get: Bumbu babi kecap, bumbu nasi goreng, bumbu rendang, bumbu kari etc etc.
Sambal is a spicy condiment that comes in all forms and shapes as well
Click to expand...
Ah yes! Sambal! I have some of that! Bumbu. . .I have never heard of! Time to learn! 📖 📚 🤓
 
Badjak said:
Mae ploy and Maesri are pretty good Thai curry pastes by the way
Click to expand...
On a scale of 1 to homemade, how much better would you say homemade Thai curry pastes are to mae Ploy? I've made red curry paste homemade once, then just not gone through the work since.

I will admit mae ploy's yellow curry is pretty salty. Though I don't know if it's supposed to be that salty as I've never made it. I assume with homemade, salt in products like curry paste is way more flexible.
 
pepperhead212 said:
The Indonesian pastes I remember were called Sambal, and some were much like Thai curry pastes, but less complex, as a rule, and many sambal were more like a thick dip sauce - sambal was just a catch-all term. In a lot of recipes I remember them starting the ingredients list with "For The Flavoring Paste", and the ingredients would be very similar to those sambals, usually with shrimp paste, some type(s) of peppers, usually fresh, sometimes shallots and/or garlic, sometimes ginger or galangal, sometimes dan salam, sometimes candlenuts, and whatever else would be unique to that dish.
Click to expand...

What is "dan Salam"? I looked it up using the Almighty Google and got nothing. Is it translatable?
 
BAPyessir6 said:
What is "dan Salam"? I looked it up using the Almighty Google and got nothing. Is it translatable?
Click to expand...
Daun salam...
It's known as Indonesian bay leaf although it is a bit different (daun means leaf)
 
BAPyessir6 said:
On a scale of 1 to homemade, how much better would you say homemade Thai curry pastes are to mae Ploy? I've made red curry paste homemade once, then just not gone through the work since.

I will admit mae ploy's yellow curry is pretty salty. Though I don't know if it's supposed to be that salty as I've never made it. I assume with homemade, salt in products like curry paste is way more flexible.
Click to expand...
It depends....
It's quite a lot of work to make the paste and you may not have access to all ingredients.
If you do, then it will be more vibrant, fresher tasting.

I go the lazy way and mostly use the paste, but then add makrut leaves, lime juice, galangal etc
 
pepperhead212 said:
The Indonesian pastes I remember were called Sambal, and some were much like Thai curry pastes, but less complex, as a rule, and many sambal were more like a thick dip sauce - sambal was just a catch-all term. In a lot of recipes I remember them starting the ingredients list with "For The Flavoring Paste", and the ingredients would be very similar to those sambals, usually with shrimp paste, some type(s) of peppers, usually fresh, sometimes shallots and/or garlic, sometimes ginger or galangal, sometimes dan salam, sometimes candlenuts, and whatever else would be unique to that dish. Rendang is a dish that starts with one of these pastes, usually with some spices added, and the foods are cooked in some coconut milk with the paste, and cooked uncovered, stirring often, until the foods are coated with the paste. I once made an unusual vegetarian version for a friend (of course, I ate a bunch, too. :LOL:), that had small - 1-1½" - potatoes in it, in which the potatoes were added in the last third or so of cooking; the same thing I do with chicken pieces.

Here are the two best books I have for Indonesian cooking:

Click to expand...
I got the cradle book, not the other one.
Got a fair selection of others but not in English.
Sri Owen's "the regional indonesian kitchen" is pretty good (and in English).

Sambal vs spice paste (bumbu / haluskan) is a bit tricky.
Sambal is supposed to be eaten on the side, the other is for cooking.
Sambal is sometimes raw, sometimes fried.
The tricky part is that they sometimes contain the same ingredients :)
 
BAPyessir6 said:
On a scale of 1 to homemade, how much better would you say homemade Thai curry pastes are to mae Ploy? I've made red curry paste homemade once, then just not gone through the work since.

I will admit mae ploy's yellow curry is pretty salty. Though I don't know if it's supposed to be that salty as I've never made it. I assume with homemade, salt in products like curry paste is way more flexible.
Click to expand...
That is one of the problems with canned curry paste - salt. I don't put any salt in mine, as this means I can add more fish sauce, without it being too salty! Another problem is that almost all store-bought curry paste I ever tried had some flavor in it, I have never identified - at first, when I , I thought it might be shrimp paste, or one of those other ingredients I had never used, but I never could figure it out, even after using all of them I ever read about. And years later, a friend that I used to make many of those Thai dishes with, and experimented with recipes, and different brands of ingredients, moved away, and when I went to see him, he made everyone a Thai dinner, and the red Thai curry had some Mae Ploy. I wasn't going to tell him I could tell, but he brought it up, and said that he just didn't have the time to do those things anymore, and they were still better than no Thai!

Before he moved, and we were experimenting with all those Thai things, we came up with favorite recipes for curry pastes (and many other things, as well), as well as the best peppers to use in these things, and we tried a lot of things! Here is a book, that I got some of my favorite recipes to this date from, and the author explains that the readily available (in this country) Numex peppers were as close to what he used in Thailand that he could find.

Funny thing is, we tried Numex mild, hot, and very hot, and the mild had the best flavor! And something we tried, since we also cooked a lot of Mexican food, in which this is essential, was we toasted the peppers, before making a batch of curry paste, but we both agreed that the toasting didn't enhance the curry flavor - it sort of covered up other flavors, by intensifying the peppers.

One favorite Thai curry paste from that book above is titled "Classic Red Curry Paste", but it's not really classic, as I haven't seen this method used in any recipes in any other book I have. What makes it different is that the whole cloves of garlic, and the shallots, cut into big pieces, are dry cooked in a skillet, over medium heat, for 5 or 6 minutes, until softened and lightly browned. And another thing it has, that I put in many others, in addition to the 3 oz mild, numex, is 12 Thai peppers, to add heat - the kind like chile de árbol, but hotter. Some recipes in other books would have just a half cup of those peppers, so much more heat, much less flavor, and much less paste would be used in recipes, so it was obviously not nearly as good.

Another favorite paste from True Thai was the Panang Curry Paste, which had some Makrut/kefir lime leaves, ground up with everything. The yellow variety (don't recall the actual name) wasn't as complex as the others, but had 2 tb ground turmeric, and I think that one had guajillo peppers (tried those in one other recipe, but weren't as good as the numex. He also had a vegetarian version, substituting creamy peanut butter for the shrimp paste, which was good, but not the same as all that umami from the shrimp paste!

Can you tell I am obsessed yet? :ROFLMAO:
Any more questions?
 
pepperhead212 said:
That is one of the problems with canned curry paste - salt. I don't put any salt in mine, as this means I can add more fish sauce, without it being too salty! Another problem is that almost all store-bought curry paste I ever tried had some flavor in it, I have never identified - at first, when I , I thought it might be shrimp paste, or one of those other ingredients I had never used, but I never could figure it out, even after using all of them I ever read about. And years later, a friend that I used to make many of those Thai dishes with, and experimented with recipes, and different brands of ingredients, moved away, and when I went to see him, he made everyone a Thai dinner, and the red Thai curry had some Mae Ploy. I wasn't going to tell him I could tell, but he brought it up, and said that he just didn't have the time to do those things anymore, and they were still better than no Thai!

Before he moved, and we were experimenting with all those Thai things, we came up with favorite recipes for curry pastes (and many other things, as well), as well as the best peppers to use in these things, and we tried a lot of things! Here is a book, that I got some of my favorite recipes to this date from, and the author explains that the readily available (in this country) Numex peppers were as close to what he used in Thailand that he could find.

Funny thing is, we tried Numex mild, hot, and very hot, and the mild had the best flavor! And something we tried, since we also cooked a lot of Mexican food, in which this is essential, was we toasted the peppers, before making a batch of curry paste, but we both agreed that the toasting didn't enhance the curry flavor - it sort of covered up other flavors, by intensifying the peppers.

One favorite Thai curry paste from that book above is titled "Classic Red Curry Paste", but it's not really classic, as I haven't seen this method used in any recipes in any other book I have. What makes it different is that the whole cloves of garlic, and the shallots, cut into big pieces, are dry cooked in a skillet, over medium heat, for 5 or 6 minutes, until softened and lightly browned. And another thing it has, that I put in many others, in addition to the 3 oz mild, numex, is 12 Thai peppers, to add heat - the kind like chile de árbol, but hotter. Some recipes in other books would have just a half cup of those peppers, so much more heat, much less flavor, and much less paste would be used in recipes, so it was obviously not nearly as good.

Another favorite paste from True Thai was the Panang Curry Paste, which had some Makrut/kefir lime leaves, ground up with everything. The yellow variety (don't recall the actual name) wasn't as complex as the others, but had 2 tb ground turmeric, and I think that one had guajillo peppers (tried those in one other recipe, but weren't as good as the numex. He also had a vegetarian version, substituting creamy peanut butter for the shrimp paste, which was good, but not the same as all that umami from the shrimp paste!

Can you tell I am obsessed yet? :ROFLMAO:
Any more questions?
Click to expand...
This is not obsessed. This is true love, devotion, and passion, which makes cooks like yourself and so many on here so great and amazing at what they do!
 
pepperhead212 said:
That is one of the problems with canned curry paste - salt. I don't put any salt in mine, as this means I can add more fish sauce, without it being too salty! Another problem is that almost all store-bought curry paste I ever tried had some flavor in it, I have never identified - at first, when I , I thought it might be shrimp paste, or one of those other ingredients I had never used, but I never could figure it out, even after using all of them I ever read about. And years later, a friend that I used to make many of those Thai dishes with, and experimented with recipes, and different brands of ingredients, moved away, and when I went to see him, he made everyone a Thai dinner, and the red Thai curry had some Mae Ploy. I wasn't going to tell him I could tell, but he brought it up, and said that he just didn't have the time to do those things anymore, and they were still better than no Thai!

Before he moved, and we were experimenting with all those Thai things, we came up with favorite recipes for curry pastes (and many other things, as well), as well as the best peppers to use in these things, and we tried a lot of things! Here is a book, that I got some of my favorite recipes to this date from, and the author explains that the readily available (in this country) Numex peppers were as close to what he used in Thailand that he could find.

Funny thing is, we tried Numex mild, hot, and very hot, and the mild had the best flavor! And something we tried, since we also cooked a lot of Mexican food, in which this is essential, was we toasted the peppers, before making a batch of curry paste, but we both agreed that the toasting didn't enhance the curry flavor - it sort of covered up other flavors, by intensifying the peppers.

One favorite Thai curry paste from that book above is titled "Classic Red Curry Paste", but it's not really classic, as I haven't seen this method used in any recipes in any other book I have. What makes it different is that the whole cloves of garlic, and the shallots, cut into big pieces, are dry cooked in a skillet, over medium heat, for 5 or 6 minutes, until softened and lightly browned. And another thing it has, that I put in many others, in addition to the 3 oz mild, numex, is 12 Thai peppers, to add heat - the kind like chile de árbol, but hotter. Some recipes in other books would have just a half cup of those peppers, so much more heat, much less flavor, and much less paste would be used in recipes, so it was obviously not nearly as good.

Another favorite paste from True Thai was the Panang Curry Paste, which had some Makrut/kefir lime leaves, ground up with everything. The yellow variety (don't recall the actual name) wasn't as complex as the others, but had 2 tb ground turmeric, and I think that one had guajillo peppers (tried those in one other recipe, but weren't as good as the numex. He also had a vegetarian version, substituting creamy peanut butter for the shrimp paste, which was good, but not the same as all that umami from the shrimp paste!

Can you tell I am obsessed yet? :ROFLMAO:
Any more questions?
Click to expand...
I would assume the thing you could taste is probably one of them (less than 2%) "natural flavors" or preservatives that so many store bought sauces have in them.
 
BAPyessir6 said:
I would assume the thing you could taste is probably one of them (less than 2%) "natural flavors" or preservatives that so many store bought sauces have in them.
Click to expand...
That's probably it. There's another thing like that - that flavor in most boxed cake mixes and brownie mixes. I used to think it was artificial vanilla, but when I saw on ATK, when they were testing a bunch of brands of vanilla, and as a test, they did some that was simply artificial vanilla, and the vanillin won! They figured someone mislabeled something, so they ran it again, and the same thing happened. This made me figure that this must not be that unusual flavor I am always tasting. The only time I haven't tasted that flavor in some brownies, when I've known they were boxed, were some a friend made, that were the best I can say that I've had that were not homemade (and better than a lot that were homemade!), and the guy told me that they were Ghirardelli, which told me why they were so good. But, that's still not something I'll stop making, as long as I'm able! :LOL:
 
BAPyessir6 said:
Is there even a reason to buy "curry powder" anyway?
Click to expand...
Sure, to be able to follow an inauthentic or fusion recipe. Well, actually, if I want to make recipe like that, and some of them are tasty, I make a curry powder. Like so many things, it tastes fresher and better than store bought.

Oops, I just found this reply waiting to get posted. I left it here last night. D'oh!
 
There are as many different curry mixtures as there are cooks and each is authentic in its own right! LOL. Just ask any Indian home cook.
 
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