Best curry pastes?

[bacon]

Have made curries from scratch but for mid week its too much. I wonder if anyone can recommend wonderful pastes. I made one tonight with some left over turkey from christmas - a thai green sains own brand. It was ok, not bad, but not brilliant. Those curry sauces in jars are so awful. I enjoyed tonight as I didnt have to slice an onion!

I am very snobby particular about curries and always make from scratch. EXCEPT I'm doing a masters now and have two pre-schoolers so have tried a couple of jars

The nicest I've found so far are Pataks paste as a base for adding other stuff to, or Lloyd Grossman Madras. I do find that most of them are far too sweet. Shere Khan brand is OK too.

pataks

We always use the Pataks pastes (Cannot abide jars of sauce either!). M&S do some good pastes too - really like their korma and their tandoori pastes.

Oh and Nigella recommends the Thai Taste brand of thai pastes. I've tried the red curry paste that you add coconut milk/stock to and it was nice.

I know a few Indians and Malaysians who make the most incredible home made curries but use the shop bought pastes such as Patak's. I think a lot of the secret is what you do with it, when you add the paste and powders, how long you fry different parts of it for etc.

I've tried but can never match what they do despite having the same ingredients.

For Indian I make my own, or use Pataks jars. Home-made tastes better, but jars give the authentic curry-house texture.

A Thai girl I knew recommended the Mae Ploy brand of Thai curry pastes, including red,green and yellow curry pastes. I found them in my local Chinese supermarket worth checking if you have a Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese shop around. I use them - they're good, but HOT!

Do I assume all these sauces are for chicken, chicken or chicken? I do a fab king prawn caladine by rick stein.

But suppose all these pastes/sauces only work well with lean meat or are there others for stewing beef or pork?

I am indian and i use shan packet mixes,the main secret to non creamy currie is to slice onions thinly then brown them before adding other ingredients.

Try www.spicebox.co.uk/Home/tabid/36/List/1/CategoryID/12/Levethis A fresh paste you just add meat/veg/water or coconut milk.

www.badusindianfeast.co.uk/products/index.htmlThese are fantastic but only available in eastern england.

made a mess of the links

goggle Badu's indian feast and Raffis spice box

Yes yes yes spice box. Been trying for years, have posted threads like yours and still, nothing really really tasty.

Neighbour introduced me tp Rafis (sp?) and they're utterly brilliant. She gets them when she goes to Yorkshire, but brings me back four packs or so. They fridge for a month or freeze for 6 months and are utterly Delicious. Well worth paying for postage. We get a passanda and even though I'd normally make/eat/buy hotter it's perfect because the herbs etc are so good. One packet is like £4.95 but it's for a kilo of meat. I sometimes divide the pack in two or make a batch and freeze.

Can't recommend it highly enough. Full of fresh herbs and spices.

The pastes are fab. Much nicer than a jar, but less effort than toasting all the spices etc. I also like Pataks, but Asda have recently started doing curry pastes in squeezy tubes which are even better and easier to use.

I have just spent a fortune on spice mixes from spice box

I have just spent a fortune on spice mixes from spice box

Top Tip Raffis spice box taste better the next day

I use Pataks and my in-laws (Indian Malaysian) think I make great curries.

For Thai curries I use Thai Taste or Amoy if I can get it.

For Malaysian curries I use Miss Khoo's Asian Deli, some are powder, some paste . Some are better than others, laksa and rendang are both excellent, the thai curries not so great.

I think any of the major brands for Indian curries are nice - parkas, Sharwoods, LG. I generally add in extra fresh ginger, garlic and chill and fresh coriander at the end though.

Top tip - keep a peeled fresh ginger in your freezer and you can take it out and grate some into whatever you're cooking.

For Thai stuff, I think tesco own brand red Thai paste is great. But I use an entire jar to one can of coconut milk, and often chuck in an additional lemongrass stalk (keep those in freezer as well).

Before making curries from scratch, we always used to use Nazirs pastes, but they can be quite hard to find.