Love a good curry but don’t know how to make your own paste? Or maybe, like me, you just don’t have the time? 

Fear not because help is at hand. I love all these companies that deliver fresh food straight to your door – Hello Fresh, Fresh Fitness Food, and a new fresh Curry paste company that I discovered last week called Mister Paste.

A former work colleague told me about Mister Paste (it’s her partner’s business) and she asked if I would like to try out some of their products – of course I said yes!

1) because I love food and 2) because helping out other small businesses is a good thing

She sent me a link to her partner’s website and I checked out the large range of pastes and sauces available. The site was really easy to navigate around and I was surprised with how cheap the pastes were as they’re made fresh. I chose the portion option for two people as I knew LO and Baby Girl would just be eating from our portion.

So I chose two curry pastes that I am very fond of; Thai Green Curry and Rogan Josh. For me, the balance of spices, sweetness and saltiness has to be on point in order for me to consider the recipe being a fantastic one. I had very high expectations for these curry pastes that I was going to try.

The kits arrived really quickly, around 2 working days, and there was a message on the packaging that said to refrigerate as soon as they’d arrived which I did. I originally wanted to save my Thai Curry for when I bought seafood but we only had chicken breast in the fridge that day so I made a chicken green curry instead.

Mister Paste’s Thai Green Curry paste kit

Inside my Thai green curry paste kit were the freshly made paste from raw ingredients, lime leaves, palm sugar, fish sauce, coconut milk and a coconut block… Oh and also instructions for the recipe. On the instructions it says it tells me the ingredients I need to buy to complete the recipe i.e. meat/poultry/fish/seafood/vegetables, rice, coriander, a few tablespoons of oil and red chilli for spice. I already had chicken breast and green peppers so I just used those instead.

I followed the simple instructions and after 10-15 minutes cooking, the curry was ready! I couldn’t believe how quick it was, I seriously thought that the time wasn’t right and surely it should’ve taken longer. The thing I wasn’t thinking about was that this dish would have definitely taken longer if I had made the paste myself from scratch. As Mister Paste did the dirty work for me, it was like child’s play.

The end result was a super tasty Thai green curry that met my taste bud’s expectations. I was so thrilled as the last time I had one of these was at a restaurant and it wasn’t good – it was runny, bland and just disappointing. It was from a really well known establishment so I think that added to my disappointment. This paste was lovely – I could tell from the smell of the lime leaves and curry paste that this was going to be a good meal.

The curry was also a big hit with me, Daddy P and LO. Surprisingly I didn’t think LO would have liked but he did so yay! I chose the mild version as I was a little afraid the spicy version would be too much for us and it’s more easy to add chilli to a mild curry than to try make a spicy curry less spicy (talking from experience!). I found the flavours really nice, perfectly balanced and it tasted very authentic. It tastes like something you would expect from a Thai person cooking. What I am also surprised about is how everything is measured out to perfection! Well done Mister Paste!

Mister Paste’s Rogan Josh paste kit

The day after I decided to make the Rogan Josh. I am a big fan of lamb rogan josh from my local Indian takeaway Masala Zest – they got the spices balance just right so I was intrigued to see how well this paste would turn out.

Here are the contents of my Rogan Josh curry paste kit:

The spices bag contained a cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds, star anise, a bay leaf and black peppercorns. The other contents include a coconut block (optional to use), palm sugar, chilli flakes and the rogan josh freshly made curry paste. I bought a lamb steak (leg cut) from my local Sainsburys and sliced it finely. Again, I followed the instructions that were included in the kit and it was pretty much straight forward. I did find that the rogan josh took a little longer to prep and cook than the Thai green curry. I really loved the smell of the dry spices – it’s very similar to the spices we use to make Vietnamese noodle soup (pho).

The rogan josh probably took me about 30 minutes to cook and 10 minutes to prep which in total is 40 minutes. This is because I wanted to make sure that the lamb would be tender and the only way to do that is to slowly cook it. While it was on the cooker, the smell was amazing… and when it came time to tuck in it was lovely. I didn’t use the coconut block that came with the kit (there wasn’t anything in the instructions about using it) but I think it was included in case you wanted to sweeten or thicken up your curry. I was happy with the curry consistency without using it.

I only used a little of the chilli flakes and boy did this dish have a kick to it! It was lovely though, Daddy P was a massive fan and so was my sister but for me I preferred the Thai Green Curry and for LO he didn’t like it at all (too spicy he said). I told Daddy P that I liked this paste but still preferred the local Indian takeaway however he disagreed and said that this paste “tastes so fresh and homemade, this is more like the real thing”. I never would think he would like this rogan josh that much so it will be on our books to buy again but probably not soon.

The main reason why I preferred the green curry over the rogan josh was because every tasty bite I had of the curry, I also bit into a peppercorn or a piece of the star anise that broke off… it was a nightmare! Luckily for Daddy P, he didn’t manage to bite in any of those haha! Just my luck then I guess. I added in coriander because I love the stuff and it gave a refreshing little dimension to the curry. If I made this curry again, I would make sure I removed the spices before adding the paste to ensure I don’t bite into them again.

Mister Paste – yay or nay?

Definitely YAY! I will be buying from Mister Paste again. There are many other curry paste kits and sauces kits to choose from (some are vegetarian and ‘allergen free’) that are suitable for anyone no matter what your dietary requirements are. I already have my eye on another Thai green curry kit as I really want to try the paste with fish and seafood.

https://www.misterpaste.co.uk/

NB. We were kindly sent curry paste kits by Mister Paste for the purpose of this review. All words, photos and content are my own.