Green Thai curry paste (chilli optional)

I love making curry paste from scratch. The smells and flavours you get as you grind and blend are awesome. Now that I've got a little one, and a husband who's not a massive fan of spicy food I actually made it completely without chilli, and do you know what? It was still tasty!!

This is based on Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef recipe but I've changed it a little over the years and now exclude salt and chilli!

You do need a food processor AND a pestle and mortar for this ideally.

4-6 spring onions OR 1 medium size white onion (chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

1 inch fresh root ginger (grated or finely chopped)

1 tbsp coriander seeds (crushed in pestle and mortar)

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 lemon grass stalks (finely chopped) - I can't always get these and it's fine if you omit them

2 big handful of fresh basil on the stalk

2-3 big handfuls of coriander leaves on the stalk

3 tbsp olive oil

Zest and juice of 2 limes

Optional (less baby friendly) ingredients:

2-3 green chillies (deseeded and finely chopped)

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Whack it all into the food processor and pulse.

Uses: 

Use in my Thai veggie burger recipe http://clearlyfood.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/thai-sweet-potato-and-chickpea-burgers.html?m=1

Or as the base for a Thai curry