Thai Kitchen brand has a few Thai versions of curry spice. In particular I like their Green Curry paste... very hot! Jar lists green chili, garlic, lemongrass, galangal,salt, shallot, spices, kaffir lime.

I don't often use cookbooks but Amazon has provided me with a nice curry book. It covers the spices, grains, and regional differences... Indian v. Thai. It also has a hundred or so curry recipes. Written by Mridula Baljekar it has impressed me as well written with plenty to read aside from authentic recipes. Perfect for me as I don't like 1-2-3 recipes that produce a dish somebody else thinks is good. I want to play with my food.

I'm not spamming... probably dozens of equally good curry books on Amazon and other Internet retailers. I just happen to have and enjoy that one.

By no means do I consider myself an expert on Indian cuisine or curries. As you note, the coconut milk curries of SE Asia are much different from Indian dishes.

One reliable brand I've used is Patak's curry pastes. Their mild is pretty zingy, and their hot paste is really pretty hot. And if you have a pressure cooker, be sure to try out Lorna Sass's 'Curry in a Hurry':

Curry in a Hurry

This recipe from Lorna Sasss Pressure Perfect is a quick and easy way to make a pretty tasty curry. You can make it with chicken, beef, lamb or pork, and vary the hotness by using mild or hot curry paste. 2 tablespoons of mild curry paste makes a pleasant-but-wimpy curry; 4 tablespoons of mild paste makes it pleasantly zingy; 4 tablespoons of hot curry paste makes it very hot, near my limit of tolerance (and I really like hot food). I generally use 2 tablespoons of hot and 2 tablespoons of mild curry paste. This is a recipe thatÂs ridiculously easy yet produces delicious food. If you donÂt want to mess with the yogurt, peas and cilantro, donÂt botherÂthe dish will still be very tasty, but the sauce wonÂt be as rich or velvety-smooth. ( I personally donÂt like cilantro, so I donÂt use it.) The recipe calls for 3 pounds of bone-in chicken; I find it easier to use about 2 or 2.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs. ÂOnce you get the pressure cooker up to pressure, make a pot of rice. By the time the rice is done, so is this.

1 cup water
4 tablespoons PatakÂs Mild Curry Paste
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 pounds bone-in skinless chicken thighs or breasts, or 2-2.5 lbs boneless skinless thighs, or 2 lbs. other meat
(see chart below)
1 cup plain yogurt
1 ½ cup frozen peas
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped (optional)

Pour the water into a 4-qt or larger pressure cooker and blend in the curry paste. Place on high heat and add the onion and meat of your choice.
Lock the lid in place. Over high heat bring up to high pressure. Reduce the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for the time indicated in the chart. Turn off the heat. Allow the pressure to come down naturally. (If cooking chicken, release any remaining pressure after 4 minutes.) Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow steam to escape. If the chicken or meat isnÂt tender, cover again and simmer until done.
If necessary, skim off the fat that rises to the surface or degrease the broth in a fat separator. Blend the yogurt into 1 cup of the broth. Stir the peas into the curry and simmer until they are defrosted, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat and stir the yogurt mixture into the curry. Stir in the cilantro and salt to taste. Serve in bowls over rice.

Meat choices Cooking times

Chicken (see notes above) 8 minutes high pressure, 4 minutes of natural release, then quick release

Beef (boneless chuck, 1" cubes) 8 minutes high pressure, then natural release

Pork shoulder (1" cubes) 8 minutes high pressure, then natural release

Lamb (boneless, 1" cubes) 12 minutes high pressure, then natural release

If using beef, pork or lamb, trim off excess fat and cut the meat into approximately 1" cubes before cooking..

I buy Thai curry paste, and I always check the ingredients before buying - if it has cinnamon, I won't buy it. For a while I was making my own curry paste, which was easy because I had lemongrass growing in my yard, but I don't have that in my new yard. Thai curry paste can be red, yellow, or green, and even within those three types, there are many variations.

Here's some good info on Thai curry paste. I haven't made the Vietnamese version because I haven't gotten tired of the Thai varieties yet. I think they might use Thai curry paste in Vietnam, or something very similar. For Indian curry powder, I prefer Penzey's Maharaji blend.

I never use coconut milk in curry, and I'm not concerned with making truly authentic recipes - I just mix the ingredients that I like. Indian curry powder has a lot of ingredients that I would not normally use, but if they are mixed in the right proportions, I like it okay.

Lars

I'm with you Lars, no Cinnamon and no Cocoanut milk, but just about all the recipes I see have one or the other. Can you tell me how you are making your Curries, I would love to know.

Steve

There are literally thousands of different curry blends, which vary considerably from different regions. Even within India, the land of curry, you'll find hundreds of different versions.

The variation lies in the ingredients of the curry blend. A blend can have as few as half a dozen herbs/spices, or upwards of 50.

I've heard that the closer to the equator the origin of a traditional version of curry, the hotter it is. And I've been told (reliably or not, who knows?) that a real Singapore Curry is the hottest of them all. The 'heat' comes from chillies, of course.

It's an interesting culinary adventure just browsing through the results of a Google search for 'curry blends' or similar.

The following links offer quite a few regional variations for your consideration.

http://www.lionsgrip.com/curingredients.html

Lars, I'm so glad to hear you say "I'm not concerned with making truly authentic recipes - I just mix the ingredients that I like." Those are my sentiments exactly. I like to know what authentic is, but I get tired of hearing, "but that's not authentic." If I like it, who cares whether it's authentic!

Beverly