Asian curries are strongly associated with Chilli peppers, but I wonder what their curries were like before the year 1500? That's when the chilli was introduced to Asia by Portuguese traders. The plant is actually native to the hotter, tropical regions of the Americas and was introduced into Europe by the Spanish. Sorry, Indian chefs, your national dish is imported.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Hot curry is really more predominant in the west - stupid guys blistering their mouth trying to outmatch each other rather than simply getting out a ruler and measuring their dicks. I spent 5 years working around India and rarely had a hot curry. Each area of the country has its own speciality, but they tend to be incredibly subtle and tasty with tomatoes, onion, garlic, almond, honey, predominating above chilli...and fruit and pulses more common than meat. In northern India you can find the old Mughal/Persian dishes, which are a delight to the senses.
ShadowAmicus
Level 8
May 10, 2019
1
Precisely. Being from Kenya I ate many curries, mostly typical of the Sikh-Punjabi area. Flavour was paramount. That is why I make mildly "hot" curries, and use ginger heavily, chilli moderately. I also prefer serving pratha or chapatti to rice. (I find naan bread sits too heavily.)
@Petter I always do chapati - and rarely add any chilli to meals - had quite a few cookery lessons with the wives of guys I worked with out there. They could not understand why I wanted to learn their cookery because they expected me to have servants to do all my cooking
@ShadowAmicus Some of the many misconceptions people acquire from watching old movies.
@Petter I was fortunate in India - with a driver handyman gardener and his wife who was cook and cleaner supplied by the company - only thing missing was a gorgeous daughter to sleep with, but that would have been frowned upon.
I make Indian curry all the time and do not use chili peppers at all...cumin, ginger, tumeric, coriander...I only add peppers if I want to make it hot, but not the basic curry...
thinktwice
Level 8
May 10, 2019
3
I mainly use ginger for the mix of sweetness and "bite", with mild chillis to add flavour as well as "heat". I also add jaggery, clove, cardamom and caraway among my spices. The fresh coriander I add, finely chopped, at the last moment of cooking.
@Petter What I love about curries is that you can add or leave out all sorts of wonderful spices and the dish will be different each time...yummy...I also add various veggies and meats...It would be fun to have a dinner party with many kinds of curry dishes...sort of like those chili dinners...maybe prizes for various things: hottest, sweetest, etc. mmmmm
@thinktwice I have Sikh friends who invite me to a "curry cooking", involving a very large pot in which they make a "wet" chicken curry. Everyone receives a small serving and whilst we are eating (sitting close to the pot) more spices and ingredients are added. Once we've finished the first course, we have our differently flavoured second course, whilst another load of goodies are added. In all, there are 4 courses, the final one being very dry.
Being Sikhs, the only drink served is neat whisky, in tumblers!
@Petter Now that is so interesting! I am sure by the time you get to the last one, the whiskey drinking makes it easier to eat the dry one...ha ha ha ha...no one cares at that point!
@thinktwice No one cares at that point, but around 4 in the morning one begins to regret the excess whisky.
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