A spiced dish of fish, meat, poultry, or vegetables, originating in the East. Among the spices used in curries are coriander, cumin, chili, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, fenugreek, ginger, and turmeric. These spices may act as a preservative in the cuisine of hot climates. Other common ingredients are garlic, yogurt, and coconut milk.
For other uses, see Curry (disambiguation).A curry is any of a variety of distinctively spiced dishes, best-known in Indian, Thai and other South Asian cuisines, but curry has been adopted into all of the mainstream cuisines of the Asia-Pacific area. Along with tea, curry is one of the few dishes or drinks that is truly "pan-Asian", but specifically, its roots come from India.
Curries around the world
The term curry is derived from kari, (a Tamil word meaning sauce and referring to various kinds of dishes common in South India made with vegetables or meat and usually eaten with rice). Not all curries are made from curry powder; in fact, in India, the word curry is rarely used.
Indian cuisines
Tamil cuisine
In Tamil cuisine, from which the word originated, curry refers to any dry preparation involving meat or vegetables shallow-fried with dry spices. Curries are named according to what type of food they're made from and then adding the word curry- e.g. potato curry, bean curry, chicken curry or goat curry.
Tamil cuisine (from Tamil Nadu), one of the oldest culinary heritages of the world, is characterized by its aroma and flavor, achieved by a blend and combination of spices, including curry leaves, tamarind, coriander, ginger, garlic, chili, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, cumin, nutmeg, coconut, and even rosewater.
Malayali cuisine
Malayali curries of Kerala typically contain shredded coconut paste or coconut milk, curry leaves, and various spices. Mustard seeds are used in almost every dish, along with onions, curry leaves, sliced red chillies fried in hot oil.
Punjabi cuisine
Punjabi cuisine (from the Punjab region) is mainly based upon Wheat, Masalas (spice), pure desi ghee, with liberal amounts of butter and cream.
Other Indian cuisines
In other varieties of Indian cuisine, curry is a sauce - sometimes considered a soup - made by stirring yoghurt into a roux of ghee (a type of clarified butter) and besan (chick pea flour).
Other South Asian cuisines
Pakistani cuisine
A favourite Pakistani curry is Karahi, either mutton or chicken cooked in a dry sauce.
The Bengali word tôrkari has been suggested as a possible origin for the English word "curry."
The widely popular British curry dish chicken tikka masala was likely produced by Pakistani immigrants from Sylhet, such as Rob Coombes.
In British cuisine, the word curry was primarily used to denote a sauce-based dish flavoured with curry powder or a paste variant made from the powder and oils.
It should be noted that the debasement of the 'British curry' as a dish solely made with 'curry powder' (which, before about the 1970s, only meant a yellow powder consisting mostly of ground turmeric and chili powder, used to create dishes such as 'Coronation chicken') is a 20th-century phenomenon as was the occasional inclusion of sultanas in every so-called curry recipe. But, many curry recipes are contained in 19th-century cookbooks such as those of Mrs Beeton, and the introducer of curry into british cuisine, Emily Glasse.
Curry sauce is a British use of curry as a condiment — served warm with traditional British fast food dishes such as chips.
The popularity of curry in the UK encouraged the growth of Indian restaurants. Until 1998, as many as 85% of curry restaurants in the UK were Bangladeshi restaurants but in 2003, this figure declined to just over 65%.
Whatever the ethnic origin of a restaurant's ownership, the menu will nearly always be influenced by the wider Indian subcontinent (sometimes including Nepalese dishes), and sometimes cuisines from further afield (such as Persian dishes). British-style curry restaurants are also popular in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In a relatively short space of time, curry has become an integral part of British cuisine, so much so that, since the late 1990s, Chicken Tikka Masala has been commonly referred to as the "British national dish" .
The British Curry House
There are Michelin-starred establishments serving authentic Indian food in Britain.
Many English people regard "going for a curry" as a satisfying outing. Restaurants that are regarded as curry houses are open to the same standards requirements as all restaurants and can be vetted by and reported to the local Health and safety department of an area.
This cuisine is characterised by the use of a common base for all the sauces to which spices are added when individual dishes are prepared.
Korma/Kurma - mild, yellow in colour, with almond and coconut powder Curry - medium, gravy-like sauce Rogan Josh (from "Roghan" (oil) and "Gosht" (meat)) - medium, with tomatoes Bhuna - medium, thick sauce, some vegetables Dhansak - medium/hot, sweet and sour sauce with lentils (originally a Parsi dish). Madras - fairly hot curry, red in colour and with heavy use of chilli powder Pathia - generally similar to a Madras + lemon juice and tomato puree Jalfrezi - onion, green chilli and a thick sauce Vindaloo - this is generally regarded as the classic "hot" restaurant curry, (although a true Vindaloo doesn't specify any particular level of spiciness).Other dishes may be featured with varying strengths, with those of north Indian origin, such as Butter Chicken, tending to be mild, and recipes from the south of India tending to be hotter.
Balti curries
A style of curry developed in Birmingham, England which has spread to other western countries.
South East Asian cuisines
Thai cuisine
In Thai cuisine, curries are meat, fish or vegetable dishes in a spiced sauce. They use local ingredients such as chilli peppers, Kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, Galangal and coconut milk, and tend to be more aromatic than Indian curries as a result. red curries use red chillis while green curries use green chillis. Yellow curries are more similar to Indian curries, with their use of turmeric and cumin. Yellow curry is also called gaeng curry (by various spellings), of which a word-for-word translation would be "curry curry". This is because it is the one category of Thai curry that really is curry, and is adapted from Indian cuisine.
Malaysian cuisine
Malaysian curries typically use coconut milk and a paste of turmeric, shallots, ginger, belacan (shrimp paste), chilis, and garlic.
Rendang is a Malaysian dish that uses curry spices, although it is less watery than a conventional Malaysian curry.
East Asian cuisines
Chinese cuisine
Chinese curries (咖哩, gā lǐ) typically consist of green peppers, chicken, beef, fish, lamb, or other meats, onions, large chunks of potatoes, and a variety of other ingredients and spices in a mildly spicy yellow curry sauce, and topped over steamed rice. White pepper, soy sauce, hot sauce, and/or hot chili oil may be applied to the sauce to enhance the flavour of the curry. Chinese curry is popular in North America, and there are many different varieties of Chinese curry, depending on each restaurant. Unlike other Asian curries, which usually have a thicker consistency, Chinese curry is often watery in nature.
Japanese cuisine
Japanese curry (カレー, karē in Japanese) is one of the most popular dishes in Japan, where many people eat it two or three times a week according to some surveys. It is usually eaten as karē raisu - curry, rice and often pickles, served on the same plate and eaten with a spoon, a common lunchtime canteen dish.
Curry was introduced to Japan by the British in the Meiji era (1869 - 1913) after Japan ended its policy of national self-isolation (Sakoku), and curry in Japan is categorised as a Western dish.
The standard Japanese curry contains onions, carrots, potatoes and a meat. In the north and eastern Japan including Tokyo, pork is the most popular meat for curry by far;
Apart from with rice, karē udon (thick noodles in curry flavoured soup) and karē-pan ("curry bread" - deep fried battered bread with curry in the middle) are also popular.
Elsewhere
Other countries have their own varieties of curry, well known examples include:
Sri Lanka: Rice and curry meals Indonesia: Rendangs, meat or chicken curries with thick brown coconut sauce. South Africa: Cape malay curries Caribbean: Curried goat Philippines: Kare-kare Ethiopia: Wat, a thick, heavily spiced stew.Cambodia, Hawaii, the United States, Myanmar, mainland China, South Korea and Singapore also have their own versions of curry.
Curry powder is used as an incidental ingredient in other cuisines, including for example a "curry sauce" (sauce au curry, sometimes even au cari) variation of the classic French béchamel.
In Iranian cuisine, a ground spice mixture called advieh is used in many stews and rice dishes.
In Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana curry is a very popular dish among the Caribbean communities.
Curry addiction & health benefits
A number of studies have claimed that the reaction of pain receptors to the hotter ingredients in curries, even a Korma, leads to the body's release of endorphins and combined with the complex sensory reaction to the variety of spices and flavours, a natural high is achieved that causes subsequent cravings, often followed by a desire to move on to hotter curries. Additionally, curry addiction is an example of a colloquial use of the word "addiction" as the medical definition of the word requires continued use despite harmful effects.
An unrelated study has suggested that curry has a positive effect on the aging brain , perhaps explaining why Alzheimers rates are much lower in countries like India.
Ingredients
Thickeners
Besan (chickpea/garbanzo flour) onions/shallots cream coconut milk yogurt nutsSpices
allspice anise seed asafoetida (Hing) black cumin (Kala jeera) black pepper (Mizhaku) cardamom (Elaichi) chili peppers (dried red) (Vath-thal mizhakaai) cinnamon cloves (Kirambu) coriander (Dhaniya or Kothumalli) cumin seeds (Jeera or Seeragam) fennel fenugreek seeds (Methi or Venthayam) garam masala mace mustard seeds (Kadugu) nigella (kalonji) nutmeg poppy seeds saffron (Karu manjal) turmeric (Puliyam Pazham)Sour ingredients
vinegar tamarind (imbli) lime (nimbu) amchoor (dried mango powder, also spelled 'amchur'.)Fresh herbs and spices
garlic ginger coriander (cilantro) leaves curry leaves bay leaves kaffir lime leaves chillies onion ghee (clarified butter)Curry powder
Curry powder, also known as masala powder, is a spice mixture of widely varying composition developed by the British during the Raj as a means of approximating the taste of Indian cuisine at home.
Curry leaves
Curry leaves are the young leaves of the curry tree (Chalcas koenigii), a member of the Rutaceae family that grows wild and in gardens all over India. Fresh curry leaves are oval in shape and best used at about 1 inch in length.
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