I like to make my own curry paste, as I can easily find all of the ingredients. I adjust the ingredients to my preferences, and therefore I like it better. I always omit cinnamon, as I find that it competes too much with the other flavors, and I don't especially like it.

I have had a Thai cookbook that I have been using since 1986 (Keo's Thai Cuisine), and I like all the recipes in it (except for the ones with coconut milk), although I do omit the cinnamon in the Musamun and Yellow curry paste recipes. The Red and Green curry paste recipes do not have cinnamon, however, and so I like them better.

It helps that I have a Kaffir lime tree in my back yard, and I also grow lemongrass. I keep kha in the freezer, but I also have dehydrated kha that I sometimes use.

I also keep store bought paste on hand, but I never seen to get around to using it. The ones I have are in cans, and I check the ingredients before I buy them, to make sure they do not contain cinnamon. I mostly buy red curry paste.

That is a wonderful video Judi, thanks for sharing it. Great presenter!

I ordered a sample pack of the Maesri. It's been "ok" and a couple are way too hot for me. I would only use a dab, and it would tend to go bad on me since I don't make Thai day in and day out. I would not really want to buy a product packaged in plastic . . . just my taste.

I ordered a mix of Penang curry POWDER from the Teeny Tiny Spice Company. That has been great, and comes in a fab steel tin that is really cute! Love theTeeny Tiny Spice Company!

The video mentions the salt issue, which is going to be a problem for me with the commercial stuff. I need something low salt . . . which the fish or shrimp paste in Thai curry is not known for, being low salt.

It's an interesting video, but there are some inherent flaws in her methodology. (I know... this is just for fun.)

Like Pink, I prefer powdered spice blends, tasting along the way for adjustments to suit my preferences. I think each of the pastes in the video could be better or worse at different strengths.

On the one hand, it is hardly scientific, but since taste is subjective, I thought it was still a good discussion. She also commented quite a bit on how the pastes might play out in actual use in the kitchen, which of course is also variable. I am quite the heat wimp, so that limits my ability to purchase most commercial pastes. At least three out of the five sample types in the Maesri sample pack I got were way too hot for me to use much, even of the tiny cans. So I would have to open the cans and freeze the pastes in an ice cube tray to be able to use them without them going bad. They made way too much for me to use regularly anyway, with just me and hubs eating the dishes. I have the same problem with canned coconut milk, it goes bad on me all the time. That's one reason I don't cook much Thai food at home, but love to go to Thai restaurants. There were lots in SE PA where I used to live, not many near me now, in rural MI. Fewer actual good or pleasant options . . .

I think each of the pastes in the video could be better or worse at different strengths.

That's what she said. If heat and flavor are important to you, you definitely have to add more of the Thai Kitchen brand. Even then, I think it's underwhelming. It's the brand I started using until a visit to an Asian market expanded my choices. My go to is Mae Ploy, but I buy the tubs vs the envelopes.

I prefer the Mai Ploy as well; find it at World Market, almost always.

Maesri brand is my favorite, but then I like it hot. In addition to their curry, I love their Namprik Pla Tu (chili paste), which I add when I need more chili flavor. I go through it fairly quickly, as it comes in a tiny jar.

I do not use coconut milk in curry, but I will still make a recipe that calls for coconut milk and simply omit it.

I watched more Hot Thai Kitchen videos and liked all of them. Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines.

In San Francisco 40 to 45 years ago, Thai restaurants were the most popular trend, but they had not become common in the U.S. (outside of California and New York) at that time. Fortunately that has changed, and now you can find Thai restaurants in small towns everywhere.

I enjoy her videos too. My favorite recipe is a shrimp and asparagus stir-fry. I increase the sauce amounts.

https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/shrimp-chili-paste-stir-fry/

This was an interesting video. We have a slightly different range of curry pastes here in Oz, but many are the same as those in the US. My go-to is Ayam, as unfortunately Mae Ploy’s first ingredient is garlic: DH has developed some fodmap issues and too much garlic makes him feel unwell for a couple of days.

That shrimp and asparagus recipe looks good, but asparagus is not always available, unless you could use frozen. My brother has been doing the grocery shopping lately, and so I really do not know what is in the market right now.

I need to get some more oyster sauce - I left mine in Cathedral City. I have plenty of fish sauce at both locations.

PA was on the cutting edge of the expansion of Thai cuisine, even back in the late 90s and aughts I was seeing little Thai places pop up. The U. Pitt area in western PA was the second place I experienced Thai cuisine, at a nice little noodle joint. My first was a small strip mall restaurant in Grand Rapids in the mid 90s but it didn't last long, even though the food was great. A couple of really nice Thai and Chinese cuisine places in the Poconos near Stroudsburg and in the Lehigh Valley were the "go to" night out restaurants for my husband and I back in the day.

For some reason, MI just hasn't had that push, we don't have great Italian very many places, or great Chinese either. Some, but rare, although you can find exceptional ethnic cuisine in some of the big cities. I think it is due to settlement patterns. Larger cities in MI have great Middle Eastern food, unlike what I experienced in PA, due to MI having the largest Arab immigrant population in the US. It has oddly not hit my little town, even though we have a large Arab population. West Michigan, due to its agricultural roots and connections to migrant communities, has a lot of great Mexican food available. There are two ethnic groceries in my small town, one halal and one Mexican.

Only a few folks in my area have enough money to eat out regularly in nice places. Hubs and I aren't really into it, the food and atmosphere would both have to be extra nice for us to bother with it. We cook something special at home if we want a nice meal. I'm working on the atmosphere here, lol!

Lars, I can pretty much find fresh asparagus year round. You could easily substitute something like haricots verts. Oh, and I also add thinly sliced celery along with the asparagus and peppers.

Off topic, but California has a larger Arab population by sheer numbers, while Michigan has a larger percentage of its population that are Arab, since the overall population of Michigan is so much smaller. < According to the Arab American Institute’s data on demographics, there are more than 324,000 Arabs in California, 223,000 in Michigan > These figures may not be exactly accurate, but it is generally agreed that California has the most Arabs. Different sources have different numbers, but the proportions are basically the same.

Green beans are easier for me to find, and I always have celery on hand.