Green curry curry

I've just eaten... what may be the best meal I've ever cooked. It's a green indian-style curry, served with rice. That's it. But I'm still thinking about it. Just transcendent.

It was just supposed to be a little thing to break in a new mortar and pestle, which was going to be a thai curry, except we were out of coconut milk. I had a packet of curry leaves burning a hole in the refrigerator, and the internet suggested a sambol. I was disappointed in the internet, but went for it anyway, aiming for something between this peanut curry leaf chutney and this karapincha sambol. I've also been reading everything about thai curry pastes I can get my hands on, so there's a heavy but diffuse influence there. Here's what I did:

Wash 1c curry leaves and bash them to a paste in a mortar and pestle, a handful at a time. Add a pinch of salt as needed. Put the paste in a bowl with the juice of a lime.

Toast 2T coriander seeds and 1T cumin seeds in a dry skillet until fragrant. Tap gently in the mortar until cracked, then bash to a powder. Add to the bowl with the curry leaves.

Chop 2T almonds and toast in a dry skillet with 2T unsweetened dessicated coconut, stirring constantly, until coconut is medium brown. Bash to a paste in the mortar and add to the bowl.

Put 1T roughly chopped cilantro stems in the mortar. Peel 2" ginger and thinly slice across the grain, and add to the mortar. Bash to a paste. Add the contents of the bowl and bash to combine. Add 1T brown sugar and bash to combine.

Put 1T brown mustard seeds an some hot pepper flake in a skillet with a little oil and heat until the mustard seeds begin to sputter and pop. Add paste and stir vigorously to prevent sticking. Add 1/2 c water and simmer, stirring, until oil begins to separate. Remove from heat, scrape cooked paste into a bowl, wash skillet. (Cooked paste can be refrigerated at this point and should keep a week or two in the fridge)

While sauce is simmering, slice 1 large red bell pepper into strips. Slice 1 large or 2 small zucchini into half or quarter-coins. When skillet is free, sautee in oil until browned in places. Add cooked paste, 1/2 c water, a shake of cinnamon, and a shake of ground fenugreek. Simmer until sauce is desired consistency. Taste for salt and acidity and adjust if needed.

Serve over plenty of basmati rice.

It's mind-blowingly good. I can't even. Just eat it.

I know. I know. Bashing things in a mortar takes forever, and a food processor is so much faster, but I'm pretty sure a food processor isn't going to cope very well with the veins in the curry leaves, or release as much oil from the almonds, or obliterate the grittiness of the coconut, the way a mortar will. And there's no way a food processor smells anywhere near as good as repeatedly throwing fragrant oils in your face from bashing herbs between two rocks does. If all you have is a food processor, it's fine, do it that way, but if you possibly possibly can try the mortar, do it. Ya gotta. Ya gotta do it.