Today, we used a manufactured green curry paste to make our own green curry. We made ours with mixed seafood and vegetables, served with rice noodles. Thai curries are often served over rice or noodles. We used the Thai green curry paste from Blue Dragon. The ingredients are as follows: Water, Vegetable Oil, Lemongrass, Garlic Purée, Fish Sauce (Anchovy Extract, Salt, Sugar), Bird’s Eye Green Chilli, Green Peppers, Modified Maize Starch, Sugar, Thai Basil, Galangal, Kaffir Lime Leaves, Coriander, Cumin, Citric Acid, Salt, Cardamom Powder. Compared to the green curry recipe, in which you make your own paste, the ingredients are fairly similar. Lemongrass, garlic, chilies, galangal, kaffir lime, coriander, cumin, salt, and fish feature in both pastes. The handmade paste however, includes shallots, white peppercorns, and obviously no added acids, starches, or colours, and no green peppers.
Blue Dragon's paste is not very paste-like at all, but more like a sauce. It does not resemble the thick, potent paste used in authentic Thai curries. Another feature that rose our suspicion was the label of the paste. Blue Dragon is not an exclusively Thai company, but rather makes products for cooking a wide variety of Asian cuisines. The dragon is a Chinese symbol and indeed, the packaging of this paste seems very Chinese rather than Thai. With a desire to bring Asian food to the wider world, Blue Dragon makes products that allow the home cook to recreate Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese dishes. Could this lack of exclusive focus on Thailand affect the authenticity of the paste? That is what we wanted to find out.
Blue Dragon is a company based in the UK. In recent years, they have relaunched their brand, including the creation of TV advertisements and an updated label. It was the hope that this relaunch would "‘attract new users into the oriental food category’. The brand's packaging will be ‘refreshed’ with a floral image and a logo with ‘strong oriental hues’, which will be rolled out across the entire range," according to an article published on just-food.com in 2010. Indeed, the label focuses on the orient and exotic as a whole, rather than Thailand in particular. It is rather stereotypical in its representation of Asian culture with waterlilies, a dragon, an Asian man, and papyrus font. The exotic and orient take presence over accuracy. Concerning their television advertisements, the commercials were shot in Thailand, with the slogan "The East made Easy." To try to emphasize authenticity, it was explained in 2008 on just-food,com that "‘For our [Blue Dragon's] first TV advertising campaign in three years, our aim was to develop a creative concept that reinforces the genuine authenticity of the Blue Dragon range,’ said Tracy Hughes, Blue Dragon consumer and trade marketing controller. ‘To capture the true essence of the Far East we used local staff instead of actors, to bring the story to life in a real and believable way.’" They used local Thai people instead of actors, and had them use the products, to try to make their product seem authentic.
Thai green curry is typically to be the spiciest, due to its use of fresh instead of dry chilies. This paste has a rating of three chilies, according to the packaging. The curry did have a decent level of spice, but maybe not worthy of three chilies. The flavour of the curry was quite nice but again, the paste was more like a sauce. It had a sticky consistency, similar to what Chinese sauces have, from the added corn starch. Because of the sauce like consistency, we did not add as much liquid.
Overall, the flavour of this curry paste was enjoyable, but not necessarily the most authentic, due to texture. However, if you have difficulty acquiring authentic ingredients to make your own curry paste, this paste is a good alternative. Little to no additions are needed. Coconut milk is not even essential, as water can be used instead. The coconut milk, or cream, would add a creaminess and tame the heat.
Surely not as authentic as a curry paste prepared in a traditional Thai manner, Blue Dragon curry paste, prepared in the UK, does allow the home cook to make a flavourful curry dish - inspired by Thailand. Easy to use and relatively inexpensive, a prepared curry paste like this one delivers on both flavour and spice, but not necessarily on consistency or authenticity.
We would use this curry paste again. As students, it is convenient to use and easy to prepare.