1. Buy authentic ingredients. Real Thai shrimp paste often has more flavour, and certainly more aroma, than some brands made in the UK. If you can find pea aubergines, these are tiny with a bitter edge, and nothing like the purple ones we’re used to. You can buy them from thai-food-online.co.uk.
2. Add your paste ingredients one at a time. An authentic curry paste is never blended, it’s bashed to a pulp using a large pestle and mortar. If your pestle and mortar aren’t large enough, try grinding your ingredients separately, then mixing them together. It’s time-consuming but worth it.
