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What’s for Brunch? My Curry Edition

Written by Maracatu on July 27, 2008 – 9:07 am -

I don’t know what attracted me so much to curries such that they now constitute the only dishes I cook for myself on a regular basis. This makes me an oddity in my home (Puerto Rico) where spicy (hot) food is not normally a part of the traditional menu. I guess I can trace it to the West Indian side of my family where what passed as “curry” was that ubiquitous powder you used to purchase ready made in a little plastic envelope. I remember eating “curry goat” as a child and even curried rice. It wouldn’t be until much later that I came to learn of the true origins of curry, as well as the reasons why it is an enormous injustice to reduce the term to one simple mix in a ready made plastic envelope. Join me over the jump for an extremely brief incursion into the concept accompanied by a hybrid recipe of my own.

Although not conclusive, I have heard it said that the word ‘curry’ is a corruption of the Tamil or south Indian term ‘karhi’, meaning sauce. Since I am by no means an expert on the subject, for those that are interested, wikipedia will give you a series of other possibilities for its origin:

Curry is the English description of any of a general variety of spicy dishes, best-known in Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, and other South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines, though curry has been adopted into all of the mainstream cuisines of the Asia-Pacific region. Along with tea, curry is one of the few dishes or drinks that is truly “Pan-Asian”, but specifically, its roots come from India. The concept of curry was later brought to the West by British colonialists in India from the 18th century.

It is the latter that likely gave origin to the usage of the term “curry” as we came to know it in the West Indies. Be it said, however, that to reduce curry (or Indian cuisine in general) to any one thing is a grave misrepresentation, as I learned when I undertook graduate studies in southern England. There I met a number of Indian and well versed British students that set me straight on the wide variety of curries, masalas and seasonings used in Indian cooking. In the process, I became an immediate convert.

Since I could never do justice (on such short notice) to the varied facets of Indian cuisine, I will just reproduce a snippet from the revered Indian cook Madhur Jaffrey (who, by the way, is a Hindu from Delhi):

India is such a large country – over a million square miles of changing topography, divided into thirty one states and territories. Geography and local produce have played a great part in forming regional culinary traditions. Religious groups within each state have modified these regional cuisines even further to suit their own restrictions. History, too, has had its influences. Goa, for example, on India’s West Coast, was ruled by the Portuguese for four centuries. Many of its people were converted to Catholicism … and eventually developed an eating style which included platters of Beef Roulade – a stuffed role of beef cooked in garlic flavored olive oil and a dessert of layered pancakes – Bibingka – made with egg yolks, coconut milk, and raw Indian sugar. British colonialists left quite a few dishes in their wake too. There were those cutlis (cutlets) that our cook made. He, of course, marinated them in ginger and garlic first. Then there was the strong influence of the Moghuls. They had come to India via Persia in the sixteenth century and introduced the sub-continent to delicate pullaos and meats cooked with yoghurt and fried onions. (Source: Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking, Barron’s, by arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1983: page 9.

After more than a decade of cooking Indian curries at home, it was inevitable that I would make my own adaptations. It is possible to reduce many curries to two basic procedures or components. Once you understand that, you are on your way to devising your own curries. The first is the preparation of the curry base. This usually consists of onions, garlic and ginger which can be prepared together or separately (sometimes, I just puree all three together in the osterizer). This base is then fried in hot oil usually until the raw smell disappears. Then on top of that base, you put the spices which will give the curry its defining character. While the spices usually always include ground cumin and coriander seeds and turmeric, a wide variety of other spices and ingredients can be added to produce a variety of curries. Then follows the meats or vegetables of the course. You can see a variation of this method of adding ‘curry’ spices on top of an onion, garlic and ginger ‘base’ in the ‘ground meat’ component of the recipe I am providing below.

One of the more successful “hybrid” recipes I concocted made use of two of the fruits and vegetables I grow in my back yard. I don’t know what to call it yet, but I did anticipate it in a previous comment on a Dkos “What’s for Dinner?” diary.
(Pictured is the ‘above ground’ portion of an ‘elephant eared’ tannia plant; the tannia corms are the actual starchy tuber that are below ground)

It consists of a ground meat dish, sandwiched between two layers of pureed (mashed, actually) vegetable: boiled green banana and boiled tannia. I will provide you with a rough measure of the meat component (I haven’t fixed the exact quantities for the ingredients since the meat recipe was more or less based on one given to me by students in the UK – don’t worry, though, the amounts don’t have to be all that exact!).

The ground meat portion is based on a Goan Vindaloo recipe which has the following ingredients:

1 ½ - 2 lbs of ground meat or poultry
½ cup vinegar
4 Tablespoons of mustard oil.
1 large onion finely chopped.
4 - 8 cloves of garlic finely chopped (I use 10)
1 ½ - 2 inches of ginger grated finely
Strained or chopped tomatoes (the equivalent of 2 medium tomatoes)

First set of spices (these should all be pulverized or ground in a coffee grinder)
3-5 cloves
1 brown (or black) cardamom
1 inch cassia bark, or cinnamon
1 ~ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 ~ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
½ teaspoon of asafetida

Second set of spices
3 – 9 dried red chilies, depending on your “heat tolerance” threshold.
3 green cardamoms
1 ~ teaspoon of black mustard seeds
½ ~ teaspoon of black cumin seeds
2 – 4 bay leaves

Third set of spices
1 ½ ~ teaspoons of turmeric
1 ~ teaspoon chili powder, again depending on your “heat tolerance” threshold.
1 ~ teaspoon ground cumin.

Now once you have boiled the tannia and the green banana (about a dozen of each) and pureed or mashed them together to form a rough dough, you must line a standard 13 x 9 inch glass casserole with half of the dough to form a layer upon which goes the following mixture:

Preparing the ground meat:

Mix the first set of (powdered) spices with the vinegar and leave for about 10 minutes. Then mix these spices with the ground meat and leave to marinate over night or for a minimum of a couple of hours.

Heat the oil (if you cannot get proper mustard oil, use corn oil) to medium and put in the second set of (whole) spices. Cook for about five minutes and then put in the onion, ginger and garlic base. Cook for a further 10 – 15 minutes and then add the tomatoes, minced meat marinade and the third set of spices. Cook for another 10 – 15 minutes (depending on the type of ground meat – more for red meat, less for poultry).

Spoon the meat over the first layer of the green banana/tannia mash. Then carefully add the rest of the mash on top of the dish. You should end up with a layer of ground vindaloo sandwiched between two thick layers of green banana/tannia mash (the second layer of mash should come up to the rim of the casserole (it won’t boil over). Finally, pop the casserole in the oven at 375 - 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. You will be surprised at the outcome. Once done and cooled, you can cut and parcel it out as though it were pieces of cake (it won’t run or disintegrated into a mess)

Aside from the taste, I love this dish for two essential reasons: (1) It gets better with time, so you can leave it in the fridge and feast on it all week long and instead of spoiling, it simply gets better and better; (2) It is a self contained meal! No need to cook anything to accompany it, like rice, potatoes or any other side dish (except perhaps a salad).

So what are you folks having this morning? By the way, any guesses where Maracatu was cooking the above pictured curried chicken dish? (if you guess the city, I will cook you a curry). Served as dinner on Daily Kos.

Tags: curries, Food, green banana, Recipes, tannia, vindaloo
Posted in Diaries, Food, Recipes |