Curry, the eating sort

Now for another curry, a Southern Thai Yellow or Sour Curry. Made by my maternal grandmother. The ingredients for the paste include lemon-grass, tumeric, garlic, galangal and shrimp paste (kapi/belachan). All pulverized to a paste, cellulose fibres broken up by granite on granite. Probably mixed with sweat of unaccustomed hard work. Pounding away for a good 20 minutes, glasses and forehead splattered with pimple inducing bits. My strategy is to target the chillies; if they are ground down the rest would be too.

The potent little dynamites (chili padi/prik kee-nu). Notice the tumeric stained fingers and the fashionable 1960s mosaic floor tiles.

The finished product. To be mixed with asam keping/gelugor (some sort of sour fruit) or asam jawa/cheragi (tamarind), fish and cucumber or other suitable vegetable. No milk or coconut milk. A sour tangy fishy flavour. Unfortunately, we finished the curry before a photo was taken… you just have to imagine it.