Curry mixes and curry pastes

When talking about curry, many of us imagine the yellow powder. But what curry really is? It is one of the most spread dishes in South and South East Asia, which base is created by a various mix of spices.

The variety is so wide. You can get nearly dry variant and watery like soup as well. With coconut milk or without. It can be pure vegetarian meal or made of fish or other kind of meat. You can get banana curry too, I tried it in India and it was delicious.

And for each kind of curry dish, you can get a premade mix of spices.

In India and Sri Lanka the basic usually are cumin, curry leaves, turmeric, pepper, red chili, mustard seeds, coriander seeds … everything powdered. There are some mixes with aditional spices like ginger, fenugreek, clove, cardamo, lemon grass … depending on dish they are used for. You can get roasted and unroasted versions too.

In Thailand you can get the curry mix as a paste. The most common ones are red, green and yellow. The basic for red paste are dry red chilies, kafir lime zest, garlic, shallots, lemon grass. In green paste you will find fresh green chilies instead dry red ones. The main part of the yellow one is created by fresh turmeric.

Recipes with curry powder and curry pastes.

To buy a green curry paste US, UK, Europe, To buy a red curry paste US, UK, Europe, To buy a yellow curry paste US, UK, Europe

  • yellow curry paste on the market in Thailand
  • Unroasted curry powder in Weligama supermarket in Sri Lanka
  • Madras curry powder in Weligama supermarket in Sri Lanka
  • Roasted curry powder in Weligama supermarket in Sri Lanka
  • red curry paste on the market in Thailand
  • green curry paste on the market in Thailand