Pailin Chongchitnant advocates buying Thai brands. Many of them have distribution facilities in the U.S. and work with ingredients sourced directly from Thailand. Pay close attention to what’s on the ingredients list. “There should be nothing apart from herbs, spices, salt, and shrimp paste. No oils, no additives, no water” advises Pailin. In some cases, you should also be avoiding heat, especially with curries like Massaman and yellow. “Stop thinking Thai food or curry has to be spicy,” says Hong Thaimee. “Thai food is a symphony of flavors and especially green curry, which is a curry that’s sweet and green and coconut milky.” Namjai: A near-tie to Mae Ploy. It has a redder colour (if that matters to you) and a slightly milder shrimp paste flavor.

It can be cooked by either using the canned green curry paste or using your own homemade paste. The main ingredients are Thai green curry paste, protein of your choice and some vegetables and herbs. Also, Thai Kitchen’s Green Curry Paste and De Siam’s Thai Green Curry Paste are milder than Mae Ploy’s Green Curry Paste– so you can opt to use either of the first two instead. 😊 Curry paste – I use the Mae Ploy brand which has the best store-bought flavor. As I mentioned the green curry paste is a bit spicier than the others, but this curry is still just medium. So feel free to dial up or down the amount of curry paste. If you use a different brand, be aware that some are very spicy!But don’t stop there. Use Mae Ploy in your curries with eggplant, with pork (salty pork, Chinese red pork or thinly sliced pork chop are all satisfactory). If you’re feeling especially brave, try whipping up a green curry using Mae Ploy and some of the different types of pork sausage available in delicatessens from New York to Los Angeles. Mae Ploy has enough traditional uses, but it never hurts to try something new. bunch (a little over 1 cup) Thai Sweet Basil Leaves (reserve a few leaves from the bunch for garnish) Reduce to medium-high heat and stir in 200ml of the coconut milk. Let simmer for a minute and then add the remaining coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, coconut palm sugar, Thai dried red chilies and ground Thai red chili pepper (if using). Stir to combine. disc Coconut Sugar (you can use 1 TBLS crystalized Coconut or Brown Sugar if you have that on hand instead) – chopped into quarters

Add 100 g of eggplant, sweet basil leaves, kaffir lime leaves and chilli and cook till the vegetables soften. You might think it would be hard to make the green curry at home but it is a very easy and straightforward process once you have gathered all the required ingredients. It’s easy to see why non-Thai aficionados think Mae Ploy is some kind of major magic, fixing fine foods in a way that is both easy and economical, but the truth is Mae Ploy is just another humble, creative Thai food in a long line of Thai and Siamese cuisine. There’s nothing quite like it.Though we did not test other kinds of curry pastes (yellow, green, etc.), I have used them in the past and I am quite certain that the results would not be all that different. The top 3 might switch positions a bit (and it's worth noting that Mae Ploy yellow curry paste doesn't contain shrimp paste), but I highly doubt that the bottom 2 would be different.