Indian Curry Recipes

Indian curries are famous for the wide variety, spices, rice flavor, beautiful colors and delicious taste. Curry refers to all the dishes, which are soupy and have gravy. Usually a tint of sour taste is usually found and in rare cases sweet flavor. Every part of the country has a different way of preparing a dish with different ingredients. There is a lot of variety in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries.

Main characteristics of Indian curried food:

  • Almost 25 spices are used in making Indian curries. They are used in different combinations. Garam masala is a famous blend of spices.
  • Popular spices include turmeric, chilly, ginger, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns, cardamom, cumin seeds, garlic, saffron, mace, fenugreek, caraway seeds, and poppy seeds.
  • Lime juice, tamarind, tomatoes, tamarind, kokum and yogurt is used to give sour taste to the dish.
  • They are freshly prepared by grinding on stone. They are cooked in ghee or oil.
  • The mixture of onion, garlic, ginger, tomatoes is used as a base to these spices for cooking.
  • To make the curry rich coconut milk, cream and dry fruits are added.
  • They use herbs once the curry is cooked for decoration, seasoning and aroma.

Types of curries in India:

  • Rogan Josh:
    It is a curried lamb originated in Kashmir but also popular in Punjab. Medium spicy the red color comes from tomatoes and red pepper than red chilies.
  • Saag:
    Saag refers to the green leafy vegetables such as spinach, green mustard etc.
  • North Indian curries:
    The famous ones are aloo palak (spinach and potatoes), Dum aloo(whole potatoes), kofta, navratna korma, palak paneer(spinach and cheese), aloo gobhi (potato and cauliflower)and baingan ka bharta( brinjal).
  • South Indian:
    They make use of spice and vegetables. Coconut is widely used in some or the other form. The famous curries are sambhar, rasam etc.
  • Dals and lentils:
    They make use of pulses like moong(gram), masur dal, kali dal, rajma, and chana dal which could be eaten with chapati and rice.
  • Punjabi curries:
    Punjab is famous for the spicy and rich food especially currries. They include matar paneer, sarso ka saag, gobhi matar, dal makhni etc.
  • Rajasthani:
    Rajasthan is famous for fried dal, gatte ki sabji(rolled paste of besan with curry ) and pakodi ki kadhi (thin curry with besan pakodas.)