By Margaret Malsam
I became curious about cooking with curry when I went on a cruise last summer. Our headwaiter was from India, and he brought samples of delicious Indian dishes flavored with curry to our dinner table. He explained that since many of the ship’s crew was from India, the chef had prepared Indian food for the crew and he wanted to share it with us.
I expected all Indian food to be hot, but only some of the dishes were hot and spicy while others were milder. The hot ones were a little too hot for me, but I really enjoyed the taste of curry in the milder ones. I later learned the hotness depends on both the kind of curry and the amount of all spices that are used. Plus I discovered many more things about this amazing spice, including its many health benefits.
Serious Indian cooks don’t like to use the term, curry powder, because they prefer to use Indian spice blends which contain as many as 20 spices, according to The Herb and Spice Cookbook. These blends, available in Indian markets, usually include turmeric, ginger, cumin, mustard seed, red and black peppers, and occasionally cinnamon and cloves.
Curry powder gets its yellow color from curcumin, which is a compound found in the turmeric contained in the curry powder. Curcumin is what makes it such a healthy powerhouse to fight cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, according to The Kitchen Table Book.
Researchers in India—where curry is king—noticed a much lower rate of Alzheimer’s disease than the United States. A study at the National University in Singapore also found that people who eat curry more often tend for score better on memory tests. Furthermore, the book explains how the curcumin in curry may also be helpful in blocking or destroying cancer cells and in controlling blood sugar levels for diabetics. The book’s authors, however, warn that curcumin acts like a blood thinner so those on prescription blood thinners or who have gallstones should not consume curry.
There are many kinds of curry and many spice blends containing curry. For my cooking, I purchased a sweet yellow curry powder that is spicy and rich but not hot from Penzey’s Spices, which is a store specializing in a wonderful variety of spices. This sweet curry adds great flavor and color (with very little heat) to dips, vegetables, rice, baked chicken or fish, soups, and salad dressings.
For a quick curried salad dressing: Sauté one or two teaspoons of sweet curry powder in two tablespoons olive oil for three minutes over low heat. Blend in 1-cup yogurt for a tasty creamy dressing that’s a great base for chicken or tuna salad.
The key to learning to cook with curry is to start adding a small amount of curry powder to foods you already know and like. In their spice catalog, Penzey’s suggests sprinkling curry on chicken or chops before cooking, scramble a bit with eggs and sauté with vegetables. I have tried these suggestions, and I really like the extra flavor and the powerful boost that the curry can give to foods.
History of curry
Curry goes back a long way. In fact, historians have found evidence of it being used in 1700 BC Mesopotamia. While use of curry probably originated in India, it was used in England as early as the 1300s and probably even earlier. Mention of its use can be found in the first book written on English cooking during the time of Richard II in the late 1300s.
While we most of us associate curry with hot and spicy peppers and Indian food, the original Indian curry did not have any peppers in it since chili peppers or red peppers were not native to India. It wasn’t until Christopher Columbus brought chili seeds back from the new world and they were traded to India did they make their way into Indian cooking to become part of the spicy curries we know and love today.
Today curry is used in the cuisine of almost every country and can be incorporated into a dish or even a drink. Because of the long history of curry and its adaptation into so many different cuisines, curry itself can have many different tastes and colors. Although we usually think of curry as being golden yellow, it can come in many colors.
