My thought would be to use a hot curry paste and moderate it by using less rather than using a mild paste and trying to increase heat by using more. I think the Thai curry would typically be hot, whereas the Patak's was labeled mild. I think you also will find the Thai curry to be different in style from an Indian curry.

Jim

Why not make a medium heat curry yourself? Mix tihe two?
I boost a curry's heat with cayenne....which is what the heat is to begin with...well that and ginger.
Linda C

I don't think the Patek's will work so well for Thai curries. I usually mix the hot and the mild together. The hot is really hot. Cayenne pepper doesn't really add the heat, I think, but YMMV.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thai Kitchen Curry Paste

I like the Thai Kitchen curry paste. The red paste is not very hot to my taste. I just went and ate a dab right out of the jar to test it. The green would have smoked my tonsils.

I have used cayenne to give more heat to my curried chicken in the past... along with some extra cumin. Fresh serreno peppers seem to be available most everywhere and have an easy to control bite. Plain black pepper at the table can also give some heat... the malabar peppercorns seem to have more bite while the tellicherry seem to have more after heat.

A favorite desert with my curry is plain yogurt drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. The yogurt will quickly cut any pepper heat.

: )
lyra

Here's a post for a great pressure cooker curry which uses Patak's curry paste. I find a equal parts of the mild and hot paste suits my palate just fine, but if I'm having a real yearning for hot-as-hades food I'll use all hot paste:

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 mix the mild and hot.

The Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste will give you the heat you are looking for and can be found in most grocery stores. I use it all the time with shrimp.

An indian curry is a mix of spices cooked in oil or ghee. Usually, yoghurt or tomatoes are added to a Patak's paste. Follow the recipe on the jar for a really nice curry. It's just not the same animal as a Thai curry.
That said, my nephew's wife is Punjabi and they use a LOT of yoghurt as they don't eat very spicy food in that area of India and don't think that children should eat too spicy. In the South the food is much spicier.

Here's a recipe for a Thai red curry paste.
3 shallots
3 cloves garlic
3 red chillies
A walnut sized piece of ginger
a lime zested and juiced
1 tbls fish sauce
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp ground pepper
1 stalk lemon grass roughly chopped.
TO make the paste just whizz it up in a food processor.
Fry it in a little oil until it's fragrant then add 400g tin of coconut milk.
Then add about 500g of meat, fish, prawns or veggies and cook until done.
You can sprinkle on some coriander leaves. Often, Thai curry leaves are an ingredient too but I can't get them here so don't use them.

Thank you all for your suggestions! I prefer to use a jarred curry paste because I can't get lemon grass here but I realize I made a mistake asking the Patak product to taste like a Thai paste. I added some cayenne to the leftovers last night, but it still wasn't very hot. Now I need to look for Thai curry paste and try the recipe again. The Thai Kitchen paste had very poor reviews on Amazon.

Teresa

Well, if you can't get lemon grass, just leave it out. Add a little more lime juice. It should be light, hot and fragrant.

I use the Thai Kitchen stuff once in a while, and it seems fine to me, but living in LA, I'd just as soon go out for Thai.