All About Curries

The most common misconception about curry is that it is a single spice that is extremely hot. But a curry is so much more than a single element and curries are as varied in flavor as they are in color and spice combination. Curries need not be excruciatingly hot any more than the need to come as a powder from a supermarket shelf or, indeed, to trace their ancestry exclusively to India. The word "curry" comes from the southern Indian, Tamil word "karhi", and meaning "sauce" but, even then, it denotes a fairly liquid, not necessarily hot, sauce.

Thanks to the commercial and cultural links established thousands of years ago by Indian traders and religious practitioners, Indian culinary traditions were adopted, modified and assimilated into the cuisines of Southeast Asia well before the advent of the Christian era. So the word “curry” could just as well apply to a spicy rending from Indonesia or a succulent Thai Fish cake as it could to a traditional, furnace-like Indian vindaloo.

Curries embrace a whole range of dishes, each distinctly different according to its spices and herbs and the combinations used. Curry connoisseurs can identify the country or region a dish comes from by the ingredients used.

Climate plays an important role in the food of a region, so where wheat grows, the curries tend to be dryer and the sauces thicker. Meals may be accompanied by chapaties, naan and unleavened breads. In rice-growing areas, curries tend to be more liquid, with rice the main ingredient of the meal, topped by a small amount of meat or vegetable sauce.

Originally, curry spices were used as preservatives and for their medicinal properties. Today, they are used mainly for flavoring and to make food more attractive, by providing color. Turmeric, which makes food yellow, is used to color rice and white vegetables such as cauliflower and potato. Coriander leaves and green chilies define Thailand’s famous green curries , while red spices give dishes a vivid color and a sharp, pungent flavor.

When it comes to taste, spice provide an endless variety of possibilities, while rice and wheat-based breads rival each other as accompaniments. Indian cuisine uses ghee and yogurt extensively, with spicing being elaborate but not always hot. Wheat flour consumed in the form of chapaties accompanies the meal. Bangladeshi cuisine enjoys pungent spices, and seafood or other main ingredients cooked in oil, rather than ghee.

Southern Indian dishes use the region’s plentiful coconuts, rice chilies and mustard seeds to compose the meal. Thai cuisine favors a combination of cilantro (coriander), ginger, chilies and peppercorns. Its curries are generally coconut milk-based and accompanied by rice. In Indonesia, curries based on coconut milk are made fragrant with lemongrass and often hot spices.

And we should not forget that different regions have different food taboos. Hindus don’t eat beef, Muslims avoid pork and Buddhists are vegetarians.

When it comes to grinding spices, we tend today to reach for the blender or an unemployed coffee grinder. However spices were once ground on a flat, rectangular stone with a stone rolling pin. In India, it’s still common to see spice-grinders standing on street corners pounding spices in giant mortars, throwing the heavy pestle with skill and ease, making passersby sneeze as the finely powdered spices fly into the hot air. For that ultimately authentic touch a more manageable kitchen-size mortar and pestle set will produce just as genuine a result in your own home.

The combination of spice blends in Asia is endless, with each cook following their own taste and regional preference. There’s only one proviso the end product, be it curry or korma, must be a perfect blend. No one spice should be so strong as to dominate the dish, unless the cook deliberately wants it to. More than one hundred spices occur in Asian cooking. Fortunately, the most important of them are widely available in the West. Here are some of the essentials.

Turmeric is a hard, yellow root which is ground to a fine powder. Because of its appetizing flavour, it can be used along or in combination with other spices and herbs. Cumin seeds from a sharp-tasting spice and can be purchased whole or ground. Coriander seeds are a delightful spice which adds flavor and aroma to a dish. They are available whole or ground. Cloves, nutmeg, mace, mustard seeds and pepper are also commonly used. Garam masala is a combination of spices often encountered in Indian dishes. No two recipes for it are the same, but it usually contains a blend of black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and cumin seeds.

Garlic and onions are used fairly universally in curries to provide flavor and to give the sauce its body. Chilies are the vital ingredient in many curries. Fresh green or red, or in the form of dried red chilies, they can be mild or fiery, so should be used with discretion.