What makes a dish "a curry"?

[pulykamell]

@Acsenray

It depends on what you mean by “scoop.” Using proper Indian form, you don’t scoop from below like you’re using a spoon, you use the piece of bread in a pincer motion from above.

Yes, like that. Not sure it would really work from below. Perhaps “pinch” would be a better word.

[bordelond]

Reading through this thread, and the various mentions of curry dishes from India and curry dishes from SE Asian nations like Thailand … it makes me wonder if Burmese cuisine – presumably being at a crossroads between India and Thailand – is not a potential sleeping giant among world cuisines.

[Barbarian]

@Ukulele_Ike

… I am ONLY SERVING BASMATI RICE…

THERE. ARE. FOUR. RICE!
Basmati and Arborio and wild and the kind you don’t eat.

[/picard]

[CairoCarol]

@Barbarian

THERE. ARE. FOUR. RICE!
Basmati and Arborio and wild and the kind you don’t eat.

[/picard]

Hurray, a chance to nitpick and demonstrate that I’m really a Doper! Wild rice isn’t actually rice:

Wild rice is not actually rice – true or false? If you said ‘true’, you would be correct! Because of the various names, people think it is a type of rice. Wild rice is neither rice nor a grain, even though it is called rice and is most often consumed the same way as both rice and grains. It is actually a grass, from the aquatic grass seed Zizania.

[Acsenray]

Jasmine rice is the one you were looking for

[Sangahyando]

@bordelond

Reading through this thread, and the various mentions of curry dishes from India and curry dishes from SE Asian nations like Thailand … it makes me wonder if Burmese cuisine – presumably being at a crossroads between India and Thailand – is not a potential sleeping giant among world cuisines.

From the fairly few recipes from Burma which I’ve seen: it would appear that prominent in the national cuisine, are spicy soups / broths (fish, and chicken, varieties) – reckoned worthy of appearing in curry-devoted cookbooks. Also, idiosyncratic pork curries (sometimes, pork plus sour mango). And Burmese cuisine seems to be big on the “robust” local shrimp paste (balachaung).

I’m looking at a brief visit to Burma this coming December – interest, in anticipation, re how local food might be found to be.

[DSYoungEsq]

@Telemark

To curry favor, favor curry.

P. D. Q. Bach, “The Seasonings”

[wolfman]

@CairoCarol

Wild rice is not actually rice… It is actually a grass, from the aquatic grass seed Zizania.

That is phrased kind of weird on that site, since rice, along with the other cereal grains, is a grass too. So that’s not exactly a decisive counterpoint.

[Melbourne]

@Ukulele_Ike

Yeah, just keep flaunting your superior bread skills in my face.

One of my old books suggested that learning to use bread properly was like learning to use cutlery (silverware) properly. Both because of the sticky fingers, and because of the social implications.

@Johanna

As for curry powder, that’s a British invention.

There’s a Brit TV doco / reality TV show where they are recreating life from history, and they are cooking from original recipes, using original techniques. And they’ve made up a curry dish, using spices. And the result is a curry that tastes like it’s made with curry powder The English had settled on what kind of flavours they liked in their curry before it became available as a pre-mix.

[Pardel-Lux]

@Barbarian

THERE. ARE. FOUR. RICE!
Basmati and Arborio and wild and the kind you don’t eat.

[/picard]

Paella is made with none of those. Paella is edible and yummy. Therefore your statement is erroneous.
Sushi rice is also great and not included in your list.
Paella is preferably made with bomba, J. Sendra, Bahía, Sénia or calasparro rice. Only when abroad (as seen from Spain, of course) and unable to find those you resort to using vialone nano, carnaroli or arborio. Cite.
When in utter desperation you may even make paella with sushi rice. If your guests are not Spanish and have little clue and you do not stir at all, they may not notice.

[ashtayk]

@Johanna

Curry leaves (Murraya koenegii) are a completely different thing, as TriPolar noted. That word comes from Hindi कढ़ी kaṛhī, which is a type of yogurt sauce based on a roux of ghee and chickpea flour, in which fried chickpea dumplings are fricasseed.

The resemblance between Tamil kari and Hindi kaṛhī is accidental. The leaves are called कढ़ी पत्ते kaṛhī patte (patte means ‘leaves’).

To confuse things a bit, I have seen dried Murraya koenegii (“curry”) leaves for sale in Indian groceries labeled करी पत्ते karī patte, which may represent a loan from the above-mentioned Tamil word. I guess.

I got 34,000 Google hits for “कढ़ी पत्ते” and 85,900 for “करी पत्ते,” both referring to Murraya koenegii.

I am not so sure that “कढ़ी पत्ते” is from the North Indian yogurt based dish called “कढ़ी”. Because the full Tamil name for these leaves is “kari-vepu-elai” translated as kari-neem-leaves. This is certainly logical given that the kari leaf plant is a type of neem plant.

BTW -I always love your really detailed and well researched responses.

[Johanna]

I’m not sure about the Hindi naming of the leaves at all. Why they use two different names that almost sound alike, one of which is a North Indian yogurt-based dish. In Hindustani the name for a curry dish is सालन سالن sālan.