If they did, all Indian food would taste the same, which as the title of Iyer’s book indicates, it doesn’t.
To Indian chefs, curry simply means “sauce,” typically one with spices - sometimes many of them - liquid ingredients, thickeners such as nut pastes, and souring agents, such as tomatoes or tamarind.
These sauces then are married with meat, vegetables and seafood. The combination of spices varies widely by dish and the region of India from which the dish originates. And generally, the spices are blended fresh for each meal.
India is a large, diverse country. Recipes change as dramatically by region as they do in Europe, depending on the local harvest, climate, season, religion and whim of the cook.
“We are really magicians of spices,” says Madhur Jaffrey, author of many Indian cookbooks, including Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick %26 Easy Indian Cooking.
“We know the properties of each spice, and the way we blend them brings out different aspects of the spice,” she says.
Northern India serves up America’s more widely recognized “Indian food.” These dishes rely on ginger, garlic, cardamom, cinnamon, cilantro, mint, garam masala (itself a spice blend), yogurt and cream.
Northern Indian dishes tend to have rich, creamy sauces with a complex blend of spices, sometimes more than 90 of them. Southern and coastal communities, on the other hand, rely more on fresh ingredients, including curry leaves, coconut, fish and shellfish, and simpler spice blends.
But don’t let the complexity intimidate you. Many delicious curries are easy to create.
Before embarking on your curry journey, take stock of your spice pantry. And don’t bother with that prepared curry blend. Blending your own mix of whole spices will reward you with honest and delicious Indian food.
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