Indian Curry

Understand how Indian curries turn basic meals into tantalizing food

The Indian curry is now recognized as one of the most universally-admired food types. It is served in niche restaurants and by road-side vendors in nearly every continent. However, most people don't seem to understand the reason why curries have been used for centuries in Indian kitchens and why they have become so popular. The gastronomically-inclined might say that it is the unusual taste and aroma exuding from a curry that has made it such a success. Yes, this is largely true but there is another reason why curried foods are beginning to make sense in so many kitchens, both domestic and commercial.

One curry, Many applications
For starters, preparing a curry is rather easy. It essentially includes cooking a blend of the usual, Indian spices and herbs added to standards ingredients like onions and tomatoes that have been sautéed over the flame. However, more critically, a curry can have multiple applications. This is particularly handy for households that are hard pressed for time. Even some of the biggest aficionados of Indian food might not realize that the same, basic curry is used across many dishes.

While some might call this manipulation, there is nothing outrightly wrong with such an approach since it doesn't compromise the taste factor. Instead, it eases the entire process of making different dishes by ensuring that one significant portion of the cooking, the curry, can be uniformly added to all the dishes. The main reason for this lies in the way the curry can envelope itself around any vegetable or meat and supplement the overall taste rather than masking it. Interestingly, in Indian households where vegetarianism still exists in large proportions, the same curry is used for making vegetarian and meat-based preparations.

As dexterous as a Curry!
Once the basic curry has been prepared, it can be tempered to suit, different cooking demands. For instance, if the dish requires the gravy to be thick, the curry paste is further endowed with additional elements like corn-flour or coconut milk to ensure that the density of the gravy is enhanced. Similarly, if the main dish requires a soup-like preparation in which the meat or the vegetable should be immersed, the curry can be further diluted with water. The tomato part of the curry ensures that it retains its typical, reddish hue that complements most kinds of foods. The onion part of the curry lends the viscosity to the curry and a punchy aroma. Even the simplest of dishes, like boiled potatoes, when diced and cooked with a curry, carry a strong aroma and can be easily eaten along with simple, foods like plain, boiled rice or the Indian bread (roti).