660 Curries

Crispy Vegetables with Two Sauces (Subzi Pakora Chaat, from 660 Curries, p.44), an Appetizer Curry

I admit I’m hesitant to fry foods. Fried foods aren’t good for you; they clog your arteries, etc., but once in a while you have to set those words of wisdom aside, and for this recipe, it’s worth it. Besides, it’s vegetables you’re frying, so it’s not all bad. Here’s a before look at the healthy vegetables: cauliflower, green pepper and potato:

Simply dip these veggies into a chickpea flour based batter and fry them until lightly browned.

The result is reminiscent of tempura. A light crisp crust surrounds the piping-hot vegetables. Then comes the really delicious part, maybe what makes it a “curry”. I made two of the suggested dipping or drizzling sauces: Mint-Yogurt Sauce with Chiles (p.18), which packs a wallop of heat from the chiles, and Sweet-Tart Tamarind-Date Sauce (p.20) which is sweet with just a touch of sour. These two sauces take a tasty fried food and elevate it to irresistible.

You might not need a whole recipe of each sauce. I made half batches, which was enough for the pakoras. Of course if you do have extra sauce, it can be refrigerated for 5 days or frozen for a month. I just drizzled the small amount we had left on some Rice-Lentil Porridge (Moong dal kichidi, 660 Curries, p.718) the next day for lunch. Definitely perked up the porridge.

This was a hands down family favorite. Some ate it with no sauce, but most had one or both sauces drizzled atop the vegetable pile. I had several requests for an encore presentation, and I’m sure I’ll oblige.

Flaky Breads Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese (Palak Paneer Parantha, from 660 Curries, p.734) takes the traditional Indian flatbread parantha and jazzes it up with spinach and paneer. Though the recipe looks long, it’s the detailed explanation that makes it so. After you’ve made these once, you’ll not need to refer to the guidelines again. Here’s a step by step process simplified:

Step 1 - Make a simple dough of roti flour, which is a soft whole wheat flour, with a touch of salt, oil, and water to hydrate.

Step 2 - Make a filling of spinach, paneer (cheese), mango powder (amchur), chiles and salt.

Step 3 – Roll out the dough pieces and divide the filling evenly among them.

Step 4- Fold to cover, gently roll out again, and cook in a skillet brushing them with ghee.

Step 5 Devour these at snack-time or as part of a meal.

I was short on one ingredient and did a little substitution. Can you tell by the first picture what the change was? I’ll give you a hint. Look at the color of the filling.

Give up? Well, I was a little short on frozen spinach, but had a little red chard, so I wilted it and added it to the spinach. OK, I’ve never seen chard in any Indian cookbook, but I believe in being flexible, and they tasted good, which is really the key. I made them a second time with spinach, and found that the secret to the filling is making sure you squeeze the spinach dry, so remember that when you make these tasty breads.

You may have heard of Mulligatawny (660 Curries, page 649), seen a recipe, or eaten it at a restaurant. It’s a familiar Anglo-Indian dish, and one that can vary almost as much as chili does in America. The one common ingredient you’ll likely find is English style Madras curry powder, a spice blend meant to capture Indian flavors in one bottle for the English who colonized India.

This Mulligatawny recipe is full of vegetables – onion, green pepper, carrot, tomato, and peas, along with chicken, creamy coconut milk, and, of course, curry powder. I enjoyed reading Raghavan’s introduction, with a brief history of the soup. The name comes from “molagha tanni” or “pepper water”, a Tamilian word, though it’s not particularly peppery. I just call it healthy and delicious.

Begin by cooking the pigeon peas (how did they get that name?); meanwhile sauté your vegetable mélange.

Add chicken and spices and stir-fry. Things start to smell good around now. After combining the pureed dal and vegetable/meat mixture, you simmer with coconut milk, then it’s ready to serve.

It’s a brothy soup, so I recommend serving it with rice, either alongside or atop, as you’ll see below.

The recipe says serves 10, (I’d say more like 7-8) so there are leftovers for a delicious lunch. Your coworkers will be envious. Just tell them you got the recipe from 660 Curries!

I‘ve decided let the kids each select a recipes to try (and help make). I chose the section of the cookbook, and they picked the recipe. My son, the youngest, was instructed to select a potato recipe from the Vegetable Curries section. There were over 40 from which to choose.

His curry choice was “Potatoes with a Spicy Tomato-Cilantro Sauce” p.559. His only suggestion was making is a not-too-spicy sauce, which I accomplished by reducing the cayenne from 1 tsp to ¼ tsp. I also reduced the salt , as the amount seemed a bit much. Since a recent recipe from the test kitchen was Fish Filets with a Cilantro- Cream Sauce, and I know that some of you might not like cilantro that much, I’ve got a suggestion. You could substitute 1 cup finely chopped spinach leaves for the cilantro and get a similar color, though different flavor.

My son peeled the potatoes and we were off. Whenever I let the kids select the dish and help prepare it, they seem to like it more. Give that a try if you’ve got reluctant curry eaters. A sauté of the potatoes in oil with cumin seeds, addition of a few spices by my young assistant, then the tomato/cilantro sauce, and 30 minutes later we were ready to eat our potato curry.

Looks good enough to eat, right?

To quote my sous chef son, “Mom, this is the best one you’ve made so far. It’s really good”. Personally, I have a very difficult time deciding which is my favorite. Others in the family agreed that this recipe is a winner, though some said it could use a bit more cayenne. The recipe says serves 8, but we’ve only got enough leftovers for one lucky individual.

The Menu:
Grilled Chicken (p.86)
Garlicky-Festive Rice (p.698)
Yellow Split Peas with Tomato and Chile (p.420)
Chopped Radish with Yogurt (p.742)
Homemade Apple Turnovers

If you’re the kind of host that doesn’t want much last minute prep, this menu might suit your next gathering. The grilled chicken marinates for up to six hours in a yogurt/Balti masala/ginger/garlic bath, then requires a quick grill. The biryani rice dish, which includes cauliflower, green beans, carrots, peas and more, is assembled in advance and bakes for an hour. The dal (split peas) can be prepared before the guests arrive and kept warm, and the raita (yogurt radish dish) can be prepared that morning or even a day before. Even the turnovers I made (you’ll have to check out Cooking Light for that) were frozen, and then baked while the main meal was served. I must say I like this menu for the relaxation time thirty minutes before our guests arrived.

The grilled chicken I’ve made before, and you can check out the archives for more info. I didn’t make the cashew tomato sauce this time, but the marinade is awesome, so the chicken can stand alone.

Garlicky-Festive Rice is a three-layered dish. First, a layer of partially cooked rice tossed with paprika and cayenne (or Kashmiri chiles), then a seasoned vegetable mix, followed by a final layer of rice tossed with cream and saffron. Here’s a look at the three layers individually before assembly and baking.

As Raghavan, says, a clear baking dish would make the presentation of this biryani beautiful, but I didn’t have one to suite the dish; it still looked pretty when the first scoop was taken.

The split pea dish is a simple dal that follows the basic formula of cooking the legumes in one saucepan while seasonings simmer in a separate pan, before combining the two near the end of cooking. I’m continually amazed at the incredible variety of lentils and beans found in Indian cuisine and the diverse ways of seasoning them that Indian chefs, notably Raghavan Iyer, concoct. If you ever thought legumes were boring, take a look at the legume curry section of 660 Curries and I bet you’ll change your mind. You can easily adjust the heat level of these curries with your guests in mind.

Raitas are yogurt- based accompaniments meant to cool the heat of spicy food. The most common I’ve seen is with cucumbers. This one, with radish, caught my eye for a variation, and since radishes will be in season soon, I’ll have another recipe to add to my repertoire. The recipe calls for either daikon (the big white radish) or red radishes. I decided to try daikon, though next time I might try red for the color it adds. Although the recipe says chile-spiked yogurt, there was no chile in the list of ingredients, so I followed the recipe, to the delight of some guests. It was a nice cooling side dish.

The green on top is a mixture of curry leaves and cilantro along with mustard seeds. I stirred it in before serving.

The chicken flavor again won accolades. Did I say it was a great marinade? I think it would be equally good on other meats and even shrimp. All in attendance enjoyed the dal; in fact the vegetarians in the group had to remind the carnivores to ease off of their protein dish.

I explained the biryani layering and to watch out for whole spices (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods) when eating this dish. We made a game of trying to find the spices before tasting them. Chew on a cardamom pod or clove and you’ll likely look more closely next time. I enjoy most vegetables “al dente”, which is not the way they are in this dish after the hour- long bake, but it was still a flavorful dish, and had a festive look with the layering.

The raita was my favorite. So cool and refreshing with a crunch too. Remember to use whole milk yogurt when making raitas for a luxurious texture.

Planning to invite some friends to dinner soon? Raghavan suggests accompaniments for many of his curries, or, like I did, you can create your own menu. There are so many options in 660 Curries that the hardest part may be narrowing down options. Enjoy!

Once in a great while a curry comes along that blows everyone’s palate, including my own. This Maharashtrian-influenced potato dish will appeal to all, and I have no qualms betting my first-born on it. Even though it is a great side dish, I often stuff it into slices of pita bread for a substantial lunch, along with a bowl of creamy kidney beans (pages 357–359).
Serves 8

2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons raw peanuts (without ths skin)
4 medium-size cloves garlic
3 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
1 pound russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled,
cut into 1-inch cubes, and submerged in a
bowl of cold water to prevent browning
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
leaves and tender stems
12 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves

1. Combine the sesame seeds, peanuts, garlic, and chiles in a food processor, and pulse to form a gritty, sticky, mellow-smelling blend.

2. Heat the oil in a medium-size saucepan over medium-low heat. Scrape the sesame-peanut blend into the warmed oil and roast the mixture, stirring, until it starts to release its own oils and loosen, turning crumbly and nutty brown, 5 to 8 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, drain the potatoes.

4. Stir the turmeric into the sesame-peanut blend and cook for 5 seconds. Then add the potatoes, tomatoes (with their juices), 1 cup water, and the salt. Stir once or twice, raise the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are fork-tender and the sauce has thickened, 25 to 30 minutes.

5. Stir in the cilantro and curry leaves, and serve.

Excerpted from 660 Curries, page 550

Check out Raghavan’s guest blog entry for basilandspice.com where he discusses the health benefits of curry dishes!

Let’s make cheese! Some types of cheese are difficult to make and take months, even years, to age and develop optimal flavor. Not paneer, the typical Indian cheese (pg 286). It’s quite simple. Heat milk to boiling . . .

add vinegar, which makes curds form . . .

drain the liquid, and press out more whey to firm up the cheese.

Here’s what the end result looked like wrapped in plastic wrap.

The alternative, a trip to the Indian grocery store also yields acceptable paneer. Of course, with this simple cheese production, flavor is a bit lacking, but the herb rub in “Herb-Marinated Cheese with a Blackened Chile Sauce” (pg. 305) comes to the rescue.

One of my daughters tends her own herb garden in summer, so this recipe caught her eye when I asked her to select a recipe from the Paneer curries section. The herb blend of mint and cilantro along with curry leaves, green chiles and yogurt combine to make an aromatic blend that is rubbed on the cheese as a marinade. By the way, I’d suggest that when you press your paneer, try to mold it into a rectangle. It makes it easier to make “sticks” to skewer later before grilling. I learned this through experience. The first paneer I made was pressed over an overturned colander and though looking pretty in the round, did not make for easy stick cutting.

After an hour of marinading and 12 minutes under the broiler, during which I made the sauce, the paneer was ready to serve.

Speaking of the sauce, read Raghavan’s tip. I opened a window in the kitchen, since I don’t have an exhaust fan, but cough, I don’t cough think I had adequate cough ventilation. I think the sauce would work well with unblackened chile or a fresh chile, or, as my daughter said, “even no chile” would work, as the paneer itself has lots of flavor.

We all thought the paneer has a nice chewy texture. The herb/chile blend adds plenty of flavor. The chile/tomato sauce adds a nice color and cool sweetness.

Basmati rice and steamed carrots complemented the paneer curry for our meal. My daughter’s only regret was not requesting mango or rose lassi (a sweetened flavored yogurt drink) to go with it. There’s always next time.

If you’re inspired to try more paneer curries, let me recommend Paneer with Broccoli and Mango Powder (pg. 301).

Here is an example that shatters the myth of turmeric as the omnipresent curry spice. Armed with only five ingredients, this recipe shows the layers of complexities you can create with a few readily available ingredients. I break the mold and serve this as a fascinating appetizer, slathered onto pieces of crostini (toasted slices of French or Italian bread), along with a glass of wine as a precursor to a full-blown, robust curry dinner.
Serves 6

2 medium-size eggplants (2 to 2 1/2 pounds total)
2 teaspoons rock salt
4 large cloves garlic
3 fresh red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed (see Tip)
2 tablespoons Ghee (page 21) or melted butter

1. Preheat a gas (or charcoal) grill, or the broiler, to high.

2. Prick the eggplants in multiple spots with a fork or knife (this prevents them from bursting when you grill or broil them). Don’t bother to remove the stems, since they will be discarded once you skin the eggplants. If you are grilling, place the eggplants on the grill grate, cover the grill, and cook, turning them periodically to ensure even grilling, until the skin is evenly charred, about 25 minutes. If you use the broiler, position the broiler rack so the eggplants will be about 6 inches from the heat. Place the eggplant directly on the rack, or on a rack in a broiler pan, and broil, turning them periodically, until the skin is evenly charred, about 25 minutes.

3. While the eggplants are grilling, sprinkle the rock salt into a mortar and add the garlic and chiles. With the pestle, pound the contents into a pulpy mass, frequently scraping the paste from the bottom and folding it within itself to ensure and even mix.

4. Place the grilled eggplants in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let them sweat in their own heat until the skin appears shriveled, about 15 minutes. Once the eggplants are cool to the touch,h peel them and discard the stems along with the skin. You will notice t hat there are eggplant juices in the bowl—make sure you do not discard them. Mash the eggplants well with a potato masher. (I often use a clean hand to do this if a masher is not handy.)

5. Fold the garlic-chile paste into the smoky-smelling eggplant.

6. Heat the ghee in a wok or a large skillet over medium heat. Add the eggplant påté and stir-fry for 10 to 12 minutes. This creates a second layer of roasted flavor and also roasts the garlic without burning it. Then serve.

Tip: Stop by any Asian grocery store to find mounds of fresh Thai chiles in the refrigerated produce section. Hand-pick the fiery reds for this recipe. If you don’t have access to such a store, go to the spice aisle of your supermarket, where you will find a jar or a bag of dried red chiles labeled Chiles Japones (means Japanese by these are Thai chiles) or Chile de Arbol (cayenne). Soak the required number of chiles in a bowl of hot water until reconsitituted, about 30 minutes.

Excerpted from 660 Curries, page 492.

Before I try to define that word, let me create an image for you from my college days in India, when I was pursuing that in chemistry. As I busied myself in the laboratory, I happened to knock a mercury thermometer onto the tile floor. Microscopic pieces of glass and droplets of liquid mercury dispersed, and I tried to pick up the pieces. The glass was easy, but not the mercury. The shining, silvery liquid was elusive (not to mention dangerous) and defied containment and form (we had no mercury spill kits back then). It moved freely with even the slightest nudge and affected everything it touched. Which brings me back to the task at hand: Defining curry is like trying to grasp liquid mercury and gather it into a neat pile.

It should come as no surprise to you (or maybe it does) that the word “curry” itself is unknown in the Indian vocabulary. It doesn’t appear in any of India’s twenty-three officially recognized languages and sixteen hundred dialects. Words like kari and kadhi refer to sauce-based or gravy-laden dishes that existed in India well before the Aryans got there – and with a civilization that spans 6,000 years, you can well imagine their longevity.

In England and the rest of the world, “curry” is the catchall word for anything Indian that is mottled with hot spices, with or without a sauce, and “curry powder” is the blend that delivers it. In keeping with my culture, I define a curry as any dish that consists of either meat, fish, poultry, legumes, vegetables, or fruits, simmered in or covered with a sauce, gravy, or other liquid that is redolent with spices and/or herbs. In my India, curry is never added – it just is!

To make it easier to comprehend the constitution of curries, I stripped it down into the seven Asian taste elements of sour, salty, sweet, hot, umami, bitter, and astringent and added an aromatic component to comprise a flavor profile (chef mumbo jumbo). To put it into perspective, all the ingredients we use (spices, legumes, meats, vegetables, dairy, herbs) to compose a curry falls neatly into one of those categories – but that neatness loses its clarity when you apply cooking techniques to them, changing their up-front quality to one that jumps taste boundaries. In other words, curries and their flavors are dynamic. Here is a simple chart that empowers you to create your own curry.

Elements of Curry chart