Thai Fish Curry

This is the third time I've made this, but I have never written it down so it has been different every time. This wasn't the best version, but the notes have some ideas for improvement.

Ingredients:
   Curry paste:
1/2 medium onion
1t minced or 2 cloves garlic
1T minced ginger
1T lemon grass, very finely sliced
jalapeno pepper (1 pepper without seeds for mild, 1 pepper whole for medium, 2 peppers whole for hot)
2T chili powder
1T cumin
1t coriander
1t turmeric
2T sesame or vegetable oil

    Everything else:
1 lb tilapia fillets, cut in 1" squares (any white fish that won't fall apart should work. flounder maybe?)
4 medium potatoes, cut in 3/4" cubes
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 medium onion coarsely diced
3T fish sauce (you can use 1.5T soy sauce, but if you want to cook Thai, you need fish sauce)
1 can coconut milk (don't use lite. Chaokoh is the best brand i have found)
milk

Steps:
1. Preheat dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Puree all curry paste ingredients in a food processor. If you only have a blender, add the fish sauce to the curry paste to help thin it down so the blender can turn.
3. Add curry paste and onion to dutch oven. Stir for about 1 minute. Shake the can of coconut milk vigorously, then open and add. Fill the can with regular milk and stir it in.
4. Turn heat to high and stir in the potatoes and carrots. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir in the fish, then continue simmering for 10-15 minutes, until the fish and potatoes are both cooked.
6. Serve in bowls over rice.


My rating: 4/10
Potential rating: 9/10


Notes: This was probably my worst version of this dish, but I realize now that I left a lot out. The curry paste should have an extra tablespoon of lemon grass plus 1T lime juice and 1t shrimp paste. The carrots were entirely out of place and should be omitted. For vegetables, a bag of good stir-fry mix, preferably green bean free, should be used. Snow peas would also work ok. Vegetables should be added with the fish, not the potatoes, unless you are using a very hard vegetable that requires lots of cooking. This can be really fabulous with the right ingredients, but was pretty lackluster in this version.