Hi -

I am making Chiang Mai curry tonight. My David Thompson 'Thai Food' book
wants me to start from scratch to make the curry paste, but I am willing
to sacrifice some of the quality of the result by using a commercial paste.

From the web, I get the idea that a panang curry paste or a red one
would be acceptable for this dish - does this seem reasonable? And
should it be modified in any way to approach closer to the
'from-scratch' approach?

[The dish appears to be called 'kaeng hang le' or 'HUNG - LAY' in Thai].

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Ian