Paul and Cori

Things we love: cooking, photography, crocheting, reading, math and board games.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Curry

copyright: Cori 2010


copyright: Cori 2010
copyright: Cori 2010
Paul and I have been very curious about Indian food for a long time, since they use so many different spices in the food, and we are spice fanatics. We have never been able to go to a restaurant due to the ample use of peanuts and yogurt. So we found a cookbook, and have been trying it at home. It is a time consuming cuisine to make, it takes a lot of prep time as well as a significant amount of cook time. Paul and I have enjoyed it very much!
The author, Camellia Panjabi, is great at telling stories and giving info on and about the dishes, ingredients, and different regions of India. We haven't tried a curry we haven't liked from this book. Very authentic :)
 If you are not fan of spicy, please don't try any of these recipes ;)

copyright: Cori 2010
copyright: Cori 2010
Two of our more recent curries, were from Goa. This first one is Vindaloo, traditionally made with pork (but equally as good with beef or lamb) and introduced by the Portuguese. We made ours with beef. Vindaloo comes from vin(vinegar) and allo(from alho, which is Portuguese for garlic). Along with the garlic, it uses a lot of onions, ginger root and red chilies (preferably Kashmiri- which we have not been able to find around here unfortunately- most of the red chilies used in this cookbook are Kashmiri- which is why our curries always come out more brown or yellow they should). However, we were able to find a surprising amount of other Indian spices at Wegmen's which was/is very exciting. Vindaloo also uses curry leaves (we can't find these around here either) we use some curry powder and fresh basil leaves. The dish is best served with boiled rice. Our favorite is Jasmine (a Thai rice), because of it's stickiness and flavorful aroma.

Our second was Goa Fish Curry. This is the first time we'd tried fish in a curry (beef too, for that matter). This one was our chance to try okra and tamarind (which we'd never had before). It also uses coconut- which we substituted for tofu because it was for making a 'satin smooth paste', and last time we got a real coconut and it was too hard to grind smoothly, but the tofu made an excellent smooth paste and green chilies instead of red. Goa fish curry is served with cilantro sprinkled on top.
copyright: Cori 2010
copyright: Cori 2010
copyright: Cori 2010
 Curry means gravy. It is made by cooking meat or vegetables with lots of other ingredients including thickening agents and spices without the use of flour. The ingredients also each have a purpose, some for souring the spiciness of the chilies, some for aroma, and some for taste. My favorite Indian spice is garam masala because you make it yourself (our coffee grinder is no longer only used for coffee beans) and it is so aromatic. Ours has cinnamon stick, black and white pepper corns, black and green cardamoms, cumin, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, bay leaves and nutmeg in it.  Indian is a very interesting cuisine, and I'm looking forward to trying much more.

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