You can buy shop bought panang curry paste but making your own is pretty simple if you have a mini blender available. You can make up a freshly made small quantity in just a few minutes and the taste in your dishes will be much improved.Panang curry paste is a variation of red curry paste which you can also make at home. So you may want to make a batch of red curry paste, divide it and add an appropriate ratio of peanuts, and crushed roasted cumin and coriander seeds thus ending up with two pastes for different dishes in the week and saving on leftovers.
Preparing the Mise En Place for Panang Curry Paste
Soak the dried spur chilies in plain water for 30-60 minutes to help with processing or pounding. You can also soak the jinda chilies but these tend to break up more easily so it is not absolutely necessary.Chop the soaked chilies into small pieces. Remove seeds for a less spicy finished paste.
Toast the cumin and coriander seeds lightly in a medium hot dry pan until the cumin seeds start to jump and the aroma is realease.In order of preference pound, crush or mill these into a powder.
Peel the shallots and garlic and cut into small pieces along with the cilatro or coriander root, kaffir lime zest (or leaves if subbing with regular lime zest), galangal and slice the lemongrass as thin as you can. Roughly crush the peanuts.
Making Panang Curry Paste - Mortar & Pestle Method
Place the lemongrass into the mortar and grind into a pastelike consistency. Add the galangal and pound until pastelike too. Add the dried chilies and pound into paste and continue adding in the ingredients one by one, harder ones before softer ones, pounding each time to paste. If you try to add all at once you will find it much harder!
Making Panang Curry Paste - Mini Blender Method
Add all the ingredients into the mini blender cannister along with two tablespoons of water to assist blending operation. Pulse to get the ingredients chopped.If you notice the ingredients are too stuck to allow the machine to blend then stop, reposition ingredients with a spoon and add another tablespoon of water and try again. Repeat as needed adding only as much water as absolutely encessary to get the machine to process.
Video
Homemade Panang Curry Paste with Tips for Thai Cooking
Notes
When making the paste you can pound or process to a smooth consistency or a rougher consistency with small pieces of ingredients not completely incorporated.If you use a paste with a rougher consistency then the resuling dish it is used in will have a little more variability in mouthfeel between mouthfuls which can add interest and which some prefer according to taste.