I love the smell of curry. When I eat out, I love the taste of curry. However, when I cook at home and use curry, although the dish smells lovely, it doesn’t really taste like curry (or the stuff I’m eating when I eat out).
I have a recipe for a baked rice/chicken dish that uses curry, but when I follow the directions, I get a very bland baked rice/chicken dish. I’m tempted to bump up the amount of curry, but don’t want to end up with an inedible dish.
Is there something that should be added to “enhance” the taste of the curry? Are there any tried and true recipes for a curry dish that will give an honest taste of curry?
When you say that you’re using “curry”, what do you mean?
Are you using curry powder from a spice jar? Thai curry paste from a can? Indian cury paste from a jar?
I make simple passable curry curry paste, coconut milk, chicken stock, and whatever meat and veg I have on hand. Might need salt depending on the composition of the paste.
You need to buy your spices at an Indian food store. No really. Grocery store curry powder is not up to snuff. Find an Indian store in your neck of the woods.
Don’t use anything labeled “curry power” or “curry paste” or the word “curry” at all. Use real spices. In my standard chicken curry, I use fresh onions, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, ground cumin, ground turmeric, ground red (cayenne) chili, freshly cracked black pepper, salt, sugar, ground cardamom, canned tomatoes, plain yogurt, and fresh green (bell) peppers.
Curry paste, vindaloo paste, etc. Of course, you need access to some half-way exotic spices, and a blender. They keep pretty well though, especially if you work some vinegar into them.
Plenty of canned/jar pastes are good though. . .and if you think Indians cooking at home aren’t using curry from a jar most of the time, you don’t know the same Indians I do.
Use more curry. Let me guess, your recipe called for about 1 Tablespoon of “curry powder” and it was McCormick and it was blah. In a dish for four, I sometimes use upwards of 1/4 cup of fresh curry powder, ground and mixed at my local Indian grocery. If it was stale, I’d use nearly 1/2 cup. I buy my curry powder in one pound bags.
Grinding your own curry spices is like making your own puff pastry. Making it once is quite enough, and then you’re happy to accept a slightly inferior product if someone else does all that damn work. (I’m assuming that the “make your own” crowd is grinding their own spices by hand, the traditional way. If you’re mixing your own stale ground cumin and stale ground turmeric, or if you’re using a coffee grinder, you’re cheating. )
Also, make sure you sautee your curry spices, powder or paste in a bit of oil before you add the rest of the stuff - the direct heat releases a lot more of the essential oils that are what you taste.
Ooh, I forgot to mention the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks. Those are necessary too.
Depends on where you live. If you live near a reasonably large city, there’s a good bet that there’s an Indian store when you can buy large quantities of whole and powdered spices for very cheap.
I’ve never used a blender to mix spices for curry. I can’t imagine why you’d need to.
I’ve never used vinegar in an Indian dish.
I guess I don’t know the same Indians. While there are certain dishes for which it’s common to grab the premix, ordinary curry isn’t one of them. If you’ve got the necessary spices in your spice rack or spice container, using a jar or a premix saves you only the step of frying the onions.
A fairly decent selection of Indian spices can be found at Penzey’s. Their maharajah curry is very good, as is the garam masala. Spices on your grocery rack are probably over the hill. Penzey’s guarantees fresh.
I use ordinary grocery-store stuff, and this recipe works very well. It’s very spicy and has lots of flavor. If I’m eating alone, I might spice it up even more with some finely chopped chili peppers (serrano, habanero, jalapeno, Thai) since, like Jack Lemmon, I like it hot:
Supermarket curry will smell the whole house and not taste like anything. Acsenray’s recipe sounds pretty good (mine is a bit simpler and adds cloves and cinnamon). You can make a mix of all the dry ingredients and have it ready to grind at the moment of preparation. Saves you a lot of time.
I’d love recipes, especially if I’m going to go through the experience of delving much further into the World of Curry. Of course, all this talk about making my own is rather intimidating. How in the world do I know if it’s “fresh”? And, as a matter of fact, I had been using the curry powder found at the grocery store. (I’m not Indian, okay?)
I’ll try to write it out over the weekend for you.
Just look at it as a bit of home chemistry. It’s not really all that hard. You just have to watch that you’re not burning anything … well, much. A little burning doesn’t really hurt Indian cooking.
“Fresh” as in ginger and garlic just means you’re using the actual plant/root and grating it, not a dried or powdered version. Actually, I often use the jars of pre-minced ginger/garlic you can get in the produce section. It’s not bad and it’s still a lot better than powdered ginger or garlic. Peeling and crushing/grating ginger and garlic can be a bit time consuming, so on your first go 'round you might want to take this shortcut.
No problem. It’s just a matter of assembling the ingredients and dropping them in at intervals.
Okay, I got so excited about it, I couldn’t wait – so here it is, and there’s plenty of time for everyone to offer their suggestions as well –
Ingredients and supplies
You’ll need a big pot/frying pan – a largish wok-type pan works pretty well
Cooking oil – I like to use pungent (sinus-clearing) mustard-seed oil (available at the Indian grocery - I prefer Dabur brand - just make sure it has a strong scent), but you can use any standard cooking oil (vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, etc.). Don’t use olive oil or sesame oil, because the flavor doesn’t really go with Indian flavor combinations.
1-2 pounds of chicken (the amount depends on the size of your pot) – I avoid using the breast because it tends not to absorb the flavors very well and comes out a little bland. Thighs tend to be the best. The easiest thing to do is pick up a packet of chicken thighs (they tend to be the cheapest part of the chicken anyway). Discard the skin, but keep the bones in (they add essential flavor). If you want you can chop up most of the meat into 2-inch pieces (but leave some meat on the bones) – it cooks faster and is easier to stir.
Potatoes (optional) – peel and chop into, say, one-inch long pieces. Again, judge the amount by the size of your pot. You don’t want to overflow your capacity.
1-2 green bell peppers (optional) – slice into strips (My mother also uses carrots, making it almost like a chicken stew).
2-3 large onions – I prefer white onions, but red or yellow onions are more commonly used in India. Chop. You don’t want the pieces to be larger than say an inch.
2-3 cloves of garlic – peel and crush; 2-3 inches of ginger root – peel and grate – you can substitute with 2 tablespoons of minced garlic/ginger from a jar (but avoid powdered garlic or ginger if you can)
2-3 whole bay leaves, 2-3 inches of cinnamon stick, 6-8 whole cloves – a lot of people don’t like getting these into their mouths when they’re eating, so if you want, you can fish them out after the onions are finished frying
¼ to ½ teaspoon each of powdered turmeric, cumin, and red (cayenne) chili pepper – mix with a little water to make a slurry. You can adjust the amount of red pepper according to your taste. Don’t go overboard with the turmeric or it’ll make everything bitter. Also, be careful, because turmeric tends to stain everything yellow. Be sure to wear an apron.
4-5 turns of freshly cracked black pepper (optional)
1-2 tablespoons of salt
1-2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of powdered cardamom (both optional) – these go in when you’re pretty much done cooking
Plain yogurt (optional) – I use fat-free Dannon, but if you want to go traditional, you can get a tub of home-made (full-fat) yogurt at the Indian grocery. You need just enough to coat your chicken pieces.
1-2 cans of tomatoes (optional) – tradition says that if you’re using yogurt, don’t use tomatoes, and vice-versa (the acid in the tomatoes can curdle the yogurt). Eh, I like them both, so I use them both, but it’s up to you. It’s probably safer choosing one or the other. Use the yogurt if you want something on the smooth and creamy side (sort of like butter chicken, but with yogurt instead of cream) and use the tomatoes if you prefer something on the tart side. You could also use fresh tomatoes.
Directions:
Coat the chicken pieces with the yogurt. Traditionally, you are marinating it for at least an hour, but for me it’s usually good enough to do it as long as it takes to fry the onions.
Put oil in the pan (enough to fry all your chopped onion) with the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, and cloves. Heat on medium until the spices/herbs start popping.
Add the chopped onion, garlic, and ginger and fry slowly (stirring frequently) until all the onion is clear and limp. This is the longest step and can take surprisingly long, so plan for it. You want to make sure the onions are cooked well without getting crispy. Ideally, the softened onions should mostly melt into the curry. You shouldn’t have to bite through chewy pieces of onion.
Stir in the turmeric/cumin/red chili pepper slurry and the tomatoes and green bell pepper strips. Add 1 tablespoon salt. Cook until the peppers are soft.
Add the chicken (with the yogurt) and potatoes. Turn the heat down and let it simmer until the chicken and potatoes are cooked. Stir occasionally. There should be plenty of fluid, but add water if it starts drying out or burning.
Taste and add more salt if necessary. Stir in 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon powdered cardamom.
Serve with white rice (preferably basmati or jasmine). The rice should be on the moist and sticky side, making it difficult to eat one grain at a time.
Think of it this way: do you use “Italian Seasoning” or mix your own oregano, garlic, basil, etc (even if dried)? Curry is the same deal. Every cook has his own mix of spices for curry and you have more control over the final product if you are mixing your own (again, even if just use dried stuff out of the supermarket)
I think phall0106, aside from getting rid of the McCormicks, your central problem is that you’re trying to bake your way into a curry. I don’t know what your recipe calls for but to release the flavours of the spices, you need to fry them in oil (the general term for this is podni in Marathi). Not a cup of oil (although the more clarified butter or oil you use, the tastier it will become), mind, I only use a teaspoon or so myself.
It would also help if you told us what type of curry you’re aiming for-because if it’s something from a standard Indian food restaurant you probably need to add a whole lot of milk cream. Are you thinking of chicken tikka or korma or something? ascenray’s recipe reminds me more of an authentic makhni-esque creation (sans garam masala, though). Of course, you could probably add the milk cream instead of the yoghurt to make it taste the way you might be thinking.
Ah, the age old store v. fresh debate. There’s nothing wrong with using pre-packaged mixes etc. but it’s true you never get a really fragrant curry unless you do. And I don’t know about hand-grinding, umm, I always did it in a coffee grinder. If you do go that route (and there are tons of websites on the net, just google garam masala), store it in a container in the fridge. That will make it keep its aroma longer.
Pre-made spice packets/garam masala are also okay and I use them all the time, but mostly the ones from the Indian store (shaan meat masalas are okay). But the McCormick’s madras curry powder thingiemabobs are pretty dull stuff, I think they might actually just be for mulligatawny. I did actually have a REAL Madras curry once at an actual Tamilians house but it had oodles of coconut and I’m pretty sure it was made with something different than McCormicks…though it was also yellow and smelled vaguely the same.
)