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.)