Tips for Cooking with Ready-Made Curry Paste So It Tastes as Fragrant as Fresh

Curry paste is the heart of many Thai dishes, with its bold, appetite-opening flavor and the herbal aroma that makes a pot of curry all the more appealing. Many households don’t always have time to sit and pound their own curry paste from scratch, so they turn to ready-made curry paste instead, since it’s convenient and saves time — but that convenience can come at the cost of flavor or aroma, which may not quite match fresh curry paste. Today we have some simple tricks that help you save time while still getting a delicious pot of curry.

Tip 1: Mix ready-made curry paste with fresh curry paste

Mixing in some fresh curry paste can elevate your dish another notch. Here’s how to add curry paste for the best flavor and aroma: mix your ready-made curry paste with a small amount of freshly pounded ingredients — chili, shallot, garlic, galangal, lemongrass — pounded together just a little, and it will boost the boldness of your dish’s flavor. Ready-made curry paste offers convenience, while adding fresh chili boosts the aroma and intensity. Experiment with different ratios to find the balance that suits your taste.

Tip 2: How to stir-fry curry paste for maximum fragrance

The key to making curry paste fragrant lies in the stir-frying step.

1. Start by heating a pan over medium heat, add a little oil and let it heat up, then lower the heat and add the curry paste to stir-fry with the oil until fragrant. Use low heat while stir-frying the curry paste to prevent it from splattering — if the heat is too high, the curry paste will burn and taste bitter when eaten. Once ready, add the rest of the curry paste mixture
2. Stir continuously for one to two minutes, until the mixture becomes fragrant and releases its flavor. You’ll notice the curry paste’s oil starting to separate out — that’s your sign it’s ready
3. From there, you can stir-fry the curry paste directly with your protein of choice. For quick-cooking meats like shrimp or squid, season the stir-fried curry paste first, then add the meat and vegetables. For slower-cooking meats like pork or chicken, add the meat right after stir-frying the curry paste until fragrant, and wait until it’s nearly cooked before seasoning, which helps the seasoning absorb into the meat better

See — making a curry look professional isn’t as hard as you thought. Try following the steps above with Namjai Curry Paste: if you want your curry to taste like it was made with fresh curry paste, try mixing about 10% freshly pounded curry paste with the ready-made Namjai curry paste, and we guarantee it’ll taste just like using fresh curry paste. Give it a try!