Ever-evolving Indian Curries Facts

Welcome to my blog! This blog is going to highlight my views and knowledge of Indian Cuisine! India has been well known for its world-famous Indian cuisine. The long-standing rich Indian gastronomy can be attributed to the diversity in India itself.

With plenty of foreign invasions, Indian cuisine became more and more enriched and diverse mirroring the influence of the Mughal, British, Portuguese, and French cuisines.

Every foreign ruler added something new to the cuisine, adding unique recipes and spices to our menu. Royal chefs in the olden days were either called ‘Rasoyias’ (derived from the Indian word ‘Rasoi’ which means kitchen) or Khansamas (deriving its origin from Urdu or Persian meaning ‘a male servant’). The royals who held a passion for food invested in Khansamas who always took it as a challenge to innovate and invent new recipes for their masters, the Kings, and the Nawabs. The royals quite often held parties for the foreign dignitaries and nobles, making it vital for them to present their elite guests with unique, authentic, and delightful recipes.  Post-Moghul invasion and with the end of British raj these recipes got ingrained in the Indian cooking system,
but as people migrated, they got scattered around.  

Through Unique Home Recipes we have tried to make a humble effort to pass on the legacy of the bygone era. It is no secret; but indeed, a well-known fact that Indian Cuisine and spices are appreciated and in demand worldwide. The taste of some Indian delicacies is not just due to the various spices used but should be attributed to the method by which they are cooked. Some of these require slow cooking, while others are cooked in a special type of cookware: from earthen pots to being cooked in copper and aluminum vessels. Many recipes also owe their taste to being cooked over wood and charcoal instead of a regular gas flame.

At Unique Home Recipes, we endeavor to share and invite all food connoisseurs who are in search of good taste, by not only providing recipes but also enlightening them further with secret tips to come up with delightful recipes. As of today, we witness more and more cuisines being adapted and innovated to the Indian taste by including rich aromatic spices. Fusion food has acquired new meaning today with chefs worldwide embracing and incorporating Indian cuisine with world-famous cuisines giving rise to Indo-Chinese, Indo-Italian, and Indo-French cuisines.

Cooking good food is an art: an art that has been passed down from one generation to the next. As a child, I still remember waking up to the sweet smell halwa prepared by my grandmother. No contribution to Indian cuisine is complete without the mention of the love and affection which our mothers and grandmothers pour in while preparing food for their children and family: I still remember waking up early in the morning to the sweet smell of grandmas cooked halwa !! So, for most of you who relish Indian food, here are some of the factors which make Indian cookery so delicious!! Whether its chicken curry or vegetarian curry, below are 13 unique factors which will help you stir up authentic flavorsome Indian recipes:

• Use of spices:  There are several ways to enhance the taste of spicewithin a recipe.  Some recipes are named along with the spice and main ingredients in it, like Ajwain (Carom) Fish or the Ajwain ki Arvi (Taro root curry). While some spices are used to flavor rice, others play a key role in enhancing the taste of flavored rice recipes like the famous Dhaba Style Zeera Rice. (Cumin Fried Rice). The spices also act as a preservative in some Indian dishes. Apart from enhancing the flavor, spices are well are aware of the health benefit they impart.

• The use of Fresh Green Masala:  The Green Masala or Haraa Masala as it is popularly called in India comprises of a mix of fresh coriander (dhania) leaves, mint (pudina) leaves, and green chili peppers. Hara (Green) masala could be used alone or in addition to other herbs depending on the requirement. The basic purpose is to add freshness into the food, and also each of the Hara Masala mentioned has its own unique flavour. 

• Onions: create a base for most curries and gravies that go into Indian cuisine.  Onions are also used to garnish several recipes either raw or fried to a golden crisp. Most resturant, after frying them, blend them into fine paste, to give it curries a fine paste. 

• Indian Cookware: The cookware used has a drastic effect on the overall flavor that gets imparted to Indian curries. Indian cuisine is unique in the way in which it gets cooked in a variety of vessels ranging from Aluminum, Copper, Earthen clay pots, to stones and stainless steel! Even the size of the vessel and the thickness of the vessel plays a key role in making some recipes unique.

•  Ginger – Garlic Paste: is an indispensable ingredient for most of the Indian recipes. The unique aroma and flavor of these two prized foods not only enhances the taste but also carries innumerable health-boosting and remedial properties.

• Type of flame: Food cooked over wood and charcoal acquires a unique smoky flavor to it. Today most of the cooking is either carried out over gas flame or electric hobs or the oven, but have you heard of food being cooked underground without any flame? Well, hear more of this from my later recipes.

• Use of Salt:Well, you have surely eaten a lot of food even without salt, but not any Indian curry, salt to taste is vital for any curry. In fact, if salt is less or more, it is not accepted, and people hence demand salt.

• Use of Dairy: Most rich Indian curries are incomplete without the use of yogurt or cream. Yogurt plays a role in enhancing the taste of the curry, adding a rich, creamy consistency to it. Yogurt is also used to balance the spice level of any curry. If you do not eat very spice food, eat a bit of yogurt along with the curry, you will be amazed at how it helps to reduce the warmth of spices in the food!!

• Use of Tomato: Whole tomatoes or tomatoes in the form of puree are generally added to Indian curries to make the masala base or as a substitute for yogurt. Apart from giving a tangy taste they help enhance the texture and also adding color to the recipe.

• Flavoring at the different stages: Right from heating oilin the pan, to the garnishing of food, there are different ways to flavor the recipe, which adds aroma to the recipes even when it served.

   

   

• Use of Dry fruits and Nuts: A fine paste of cashew nutor even groundnut enhances the taste and texture of the curry. A true witness to this fact would be in trying our Shahi Pasanda recipe: a rich creamy potato lamb korma curry flavored with fine cashew nut paste.

• Slow Cooking: Slow cooking of lamb and meat preserves the juicy flavors and taste of meat imparting a wonderful taste to the lamb especially! In the olden days when there were no pressure cookers, Indian chefs use to slow cook the lamb on low flame trapping the steam in a close deep bottom pan called handi, which not only helped retain all the aromas from the spices but also helped in releasing the flavorsome juiciness which got properly induced into the lamb, making it’s tastier.

• Marination Of Meat: Most Indian recipes require preparing a marinade of lamb or meat mixed in whole spices and yogurt as essential which helps the meat absorb the flavors and aromas of the spices.

     Have we explored all the Indian recipes yet? Well if you think you have, please do try out some of our unique home recipes. We have got some recipes direct from the home kitchens of India, and we have tried them, innovated them, and would now like to present these special delicacies for you to relish and enjoy. These recipes are very rare and have still not reached many restaurants. We wish you can cook these at home, and relish them.