To Curry ….. again. Global foodies favourite talk is inexplicable in the Indian curries gallery here I take you into my much awaited TO CURRY blogging. Curry is a perfect blend of masala, spices and oil, literally say, it is a genuine seasoning.Ancient scripts say black peppercorns (Karunkari) were used to spice up the dishes in sangam age, especially in meat preparations. So for that reason till now any spice preparation made out of vegetables (oh, see the word KaiKari in Tamil) and meats are called curry.
Tempering is the indicator of your efficiency and flavour of the tempering speaks whether you are the best cook. With any more addition or reduction of ingredients, it may be burned atlast the complete curry spoiled. After that whatever trick performed by you cannot get your desired taste in it. Therefore, be conscious of tempering curry, since it is the initial one which is going to produce the best of your curries.
It’s everybody wishes to bring out the curry in red colour, that means pure red fat shall be floating (Rogan) on the top… It makes its looks nice and breathes earthy flavour to the curry.
Ok, how to bring out the same?
After mixing thoroughly the masala and fundamental ingredients add a little water and make it to simmer for sometime which helps the oil in the masala leave and floats on the curry and it adds good colour too.
Once after have seen the name curry, everyone thinks that the dish may not be finished without curryleaves. But too much of it may sometimes arrest the flavour or real taste of the curry (my next post is on curryleaves, I shall brief you on that later). So add the curryleaves whenever it is required.
After adding the thickening agents do not allow to boil, keep the flame in simmer. Otherwise, the curry will disintegrate. Use a little gingelly oil with any other oil. It is but better to use ghee and dalda for mutton and beef.
Sometimes we are not satisfied with the seasoning and it may be our habit to put masalas again and again which spoils the taste and aroma and it may not properly bind with the ingredients and it may feature raw taste to the curry. By the way, in which stage is adding the masala into curry is very important. Keep the taste of your product (curry) in mind, use the essence wisely.
Suggestion for adding essence
1. For beef and mutton you may increase the essence as per your taste buds, but add less turmeric powder. Use black peppercorns and curd which helps to enhance the scent.
2. Add less turmeric powder and spices for chicken curry.
3. Take care in tempering with fish curries. It is advisable to use ground redchilli paste for good authentic colour and taste.
4. To push in masala to the curry add some “Otty Masala” to pump up the taste. It is to simply sauté the shallots and chopped tomatoes and just grinds it in mixie. Use this ground mixture while preparing any curry at the time of tempering.
5. Put the sour kind ingredients ex: (tomatoes) only after the main ingredients are mixed well and cooked with masala to get better taste.
6. Extensively use the cumin powder in meat preparation; it is the only masala powder which easily penetrates to the fibers of meat.
All Purpose Masala Powder
Cardamom – 1 tbsp
Cloves – 1 tsp
Cinnamon – 3barks
Saunf (Fennel seeds) – 2 tbsp
Kalpasi – 1 tsp
Mace – 3nos
Nutmeg – 2nos
Dry fry the above ingredients. Powder it finely. Store it in airtight container and use whenever require.
To get the non-vegetarian taste in vegetarian curries use my above APM and also add a little for all curries to get the desired taste and flavour.
Are you ready to cooking up the best curry? Go ahead… Enjoy the taste. Soon I shall be back on Curryleaves vs Curry….
Note
Try the correct proportion of ingredients and do observation on your method to dish out a yummy curry.
Tagline
Good responses for my earlier post on “Secrets of Dosa Success” by your wave of posts were tagged into my blog success. Many requested to write something on curry, these request from my lovable readers urged me to post this new “To Curry”.
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