Red Curry (Gaeng Daeng)

Red curry paste is the foundation paste of central Thai cooking — Thompson describes it as the closest to a 'standard' Thai curry paste, the preparation from which many other pastes are derived. The dried red chilli's role in the paste reflects both the history of the chilli in Thai cuisine (introduced from the New World via Portuguese traders in the 16th century, adopted with such completeness into Thai cooking that its origin is rarely remembered) and the central Thai kitchen's preference for the deeper, rounder flavour of dried chilli over the vivid freshness of green.

A curry of central Thailand built on a paste of dried red chillies that gives the preparation its name and its characteristic deep red-orange colour — richer and somewhat more intense in flavour than the fresh-chilli brightness of green curry, with the dried chillies contributing a fruity depth and a warmth that builds rather than strikes. Red curry is the most versatile of the classical Thai curries: it can take almost any protein (duck, beef, pork, seafood, tofu), any vegetable of compatible texture, and it scales from modest heat to considerable intensity depending on the quantity and variety of dried chilli used.

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