« Lessons from the Zoo Train  •   Main   •  Design Resources »

August 18, 2005

Indian Curry Recipes Request

Last weekend we travelled down to Illinois, to attend one of Nathan's friends' 3rd birthday party. While we were there, I had a chance to meet and talk with a friendly Indian couple attending the party with their daughter.

I mentioned how much I love Indian cuisine and curries particularly, asking a few questions about curry (what's good, where to but it, etc.). Before I could say “I love chicken curry” the woman I was chatting with offered me some of her own home-made curry! While our kids played, she zipped across the street to her home, and bagged up a good amount of yellow curry and a big bag raw spices to grind my own garam masala, complete with ingredients and instructions! Wow!

I was so very honored to be given a gift such as this, and boy, she gave me probably half a pound of her mother's own hand-ground curry mix and a raw spices for garam masala curry! I thanked her for the curries, but more importantly, for the honor of being given such a wonderful gift!

Recipe Research
The couple also pointed me to Bawarchi.com and their food section, which I checked out back home. Unfortunately, I was a little overwhelmed with the choices, terminology and options at the site. I was able to find one good-looking chicken curry recipe after a bit of Googling, but I'd love to have some more personally recommended recipes to try with this precious curry.

Readers to the Rescue
Today I thought, hey, why not throw it out to my readers and the blogosphere? So, here I am, asking anyone out there with good curry recipes to share them with me! I particularly love Chicken Curry (Murgh Kari), but any Indian fare with (or without) curry involved interests me.

If you don't have recipes to offer but can share suggestions for websites with good recipes or which can help me understand terms, history, and other things about Indian food, I would greatly appreciate it.

Once I've gathered good recipes and links and have tried a few out, I'd like to post a follow-up article with everything compiled in a nice posting, with credit to those who have helped out (e.g. names and links).

I better go get my stack of blank 3x5 cards ready... :-)

Technorati Tags: curry, food, recipes

August 18, 2005 12:09 AM | Food & Drink | add to del.icio.us

Comments

Curried Mushroom and Eggplant
(originally from Wolfgang Puck, adapted a bit)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons curry powder (or more, to taste)
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
3 small Japanese eggplants or one large regular eggplant, trimmed and cut into ½-inch cubes
15 mushrooms, halved or quartered if large. Any standard mushroom is fine.
Salt to taste

Place the cumin and curry powder in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring, just until toasted, about 30 seconds. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add spices and remaining ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and serve.

Yield: 4 servings

Posted by: fiat lux at August 18, 2005 1:50 AM

When I lived in Singapore in the 1960's, I used to hop over the monsoon drain to eat my Bengali neighbor's chicken curry and homemade puri for lunch. Haven't been able to precisely replicate her recipe and her daughter (visiting US from UK couldn't either). The next best thing I can suggest is Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking from Barron's Books. I can heartily recommend these two chicken "curries:" Murgh rasedar, p. 72, Lal masale wali murgh, p. 79. Gujurati green beans are delicious and her recipe for Spiced basmati rice makes a plain roast chicken something special. The key is fresh spices (no tinned curry powder) ground up in the spare grinder (or mortar & pestle), patience and love (just how my friend's mom made it).

Posted by: TCR at August 18, 2005 4:42 PM

Rachel: Thanks for the recipe! I'll give that one a try.

Tracy: Thanks for the book tip and specific pages to look at. I'll go request it from the libaray and check it out. :-)

Posted by: Mike Rohde at August 19, 2005 2:39 PM

I don't know about cooking, a whole lot (yet). But I can suggest some very good Indian food. Palack Paneer (Saag Paneer) is a really good dish, along with idli dosa and samosas. If you want more specialized stuff though, I'd look into danshak and kichri.

Posted by: Nikhil Mulani at August 21, 2005 8:03 AM

Mike, I have a handful of recipes in the Indian category of my recipe blog.

Posted by: Ian McKenzie at August 21, 2005 10:54 AM

I too have a few Indian recipes in the ethnic category in the Mandible section of my website.

I make curries all the time but it's hard to offer recipes. Much of making curry to me is knowing what spices blend well and experimenting. After you've made a few different ones, it's hard to go wrong, but for god's sake stay away from the curry powder you might find in the grocery store. Get some good fresh spices and a coffee grinder, dry roast the spices and grind them to make your own curries. There is no substitute for this.

-n

Posted by: Narayan at August 22, 2005 11:49 PM

basic requirement for curry is
Coriander powder
Chilli powder
Turmeric powder
Cumin powder.
Normal proportion is 2:1:1/2:1/4 teaspoon.for serving 2 people. If u like it very spicy increase the chilli powder. Mix all the ingredients and store in jar.

Next part is the Garam masala..
There are millions of Garam masala. Basically u need an 1/2 inch of cinnamon 4 cardomom 4 cloves a teaspoon of pepper corns/ curry for 2. Powder and keep
Curries are either tomato or yougurt based.
To start
heat oil add onion ginger and garlic.. add the tomato mix and fry, now add the spice mix.cook for a few mint till u get a nice aroma. add meat or vege.. cook.. done
if using yogurt, add it along with the meat/vege after the spice mix is fried
Now to make variation.. add coconut milk at the end..

Posted by: Dr Sarah Verghis at September 3, 2005 11:32 PM

How to cook curry so that the delightful scent permeates the house?

Posted by: r stedman at September 13, 2005 4:36 PM

Wow!!! Many thanx!!! Very good recipe!!!

Posted by: Tony at February 3, 2006 1:58 PM

Try these great easy-to-follow curry recipes!

Posted by: Sue at April 18, 2006 6:58 PM