Curry

I was out with my friend David enjoying one of our lunch time forays to Sitar, my favorite Indian restaurant in Durham. They have the best buffet with a great variety of tasty dishes. I love curried foods because they are always so rich and flavorful…and not always hot, it really depends on the chef’s mood that day.

In the course of conversation, it came up that a brief treatise on curry might make an interesting post. Before I started researching, I figured I’d do a quick write-up about yellow, red and green curry, what’s the what? Tah-dah! That’ll be simple…only not so much. There is WAY more to it than I ever imagined. So here are some basics to start with and then in future posts I want to explore the world of curry a little more extensively (accompanied by recipes, of course).

Let me start by clearing up a common misconception. “Curry” is not a single, burn-your-face-off spice used in Indian food. Instead curry refers to a blend of spices (and not just hot ones).

The word curry has come to be synonymous with “hot and spicy” but it was actually derived (read: anglicized) from the southern Indian Tamil word kaṟi meaning “sauce” but not in our traditional sense. To give you an idea of what I was up against trying to pinpoint a simple answer to “what is curry,” I thought I’d share this definition I came across. Curry is a dish with meat and/or vegetables that may or may not have a sauce. :/ Mmm'okay.

As it turns out, between the commercial links (trade routes) and cultural links (religious exchanges), over thousands of years Indian culinary traditions seeped out to be adapted, adopted, modified and assimilated by other countries throughout Southeast Asia. Curried dishes can be found in Indian, Thai, Japanese, Pakistani, and Sri Lanken cuisine, to name a few, each with its own flavor blends and practices.

A wide variety of spices and ingredients go into making up the wide delicious world of curried dishes. As with many culinary specialties, curry spices were originally used for medicinal purposes or preservatives. Nowadays it’s all about color and taste. Tumeric is a spice that gives yellow curry its lovely sunshine shade while coriander leaves give green curries a lovely coloring and any number of red spices will provide that vivid hue.

Some of the ingredients you will find used in curries are cardamom, cloves, cinnamon sticks, turmeric, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, green peppercorns, mace, cumin seeds, black cumin seeds, fresh ginger, kaffir lime leaves, mint, lemongrass, fresh cilantro, bay leaves, curry leaves and last but not least, chilies (both red and green). Yogurt, ghee and coconut milk are used to base many a curry sauce while lemon juice, tamarind, and vinegar are used to add a touch of sour to the dish.

When eating curries, bread and rice are traditionally served as the base for the meal. Breads like naan are used to scoop up curry (which saves on having to use silverware) while rice helps to sop up sauces. They also provide a nice foil to the flavorful taste of the curry dish.

When eating hot curry, be aware that fermented drinks (beer or wine) and fizzy drinks (soda) only serve to enflame the burning sensation you get in your mouth. The recommended drink to have on hand is a lassi because yogurt- or milk-based beverages work best to counteract the heat from the spices.

Okay, I am SO looking forward to busting out my Asian cuisine cookbooks and seeing what treats I can bring you guys over the next couple of posts – veggie and meated, spicy and flavored – I’ll try to cover the gambit.