What exactly is curry? Why do Indians like curry so much? After reading the long insight

What exactly is curry? Why do Indians like curry so much? After reading the long insight! The story of curry is really a child's story (so I didn't plan to write this article for a while), but it can actually be written as a book, and there are really a lot of these books.

Generally speaking, we all know that curry originated in India, but this India does not refer only to the territory of the modern Indian Republic, but to the huge peninsula-shaped land region (also known as South Asia or the Indian subcontinent) that is semi-surrounded by alpine plateaus south of the Himalayas and Karakoram Mountains, east of the Indus River and the Iranian Plateau. The total area of this area is about 4.3 million square kilometers, including what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the southern island nation of Sri Lanka, with a total population of about 1.6 billion!

That's how big the whole of South Asia is!

The language, ethnicity, and religion in this region are very complex, in the case of the Republic of India. The Republic of India has a total population of 1.2 billion, and although the most common of them is the northern Hindi (commonly known as Hindi) speaking ethnic group, there are 21 officially recognized official languages excluding English, and according to the census, there are more than 1,600 languages spoken in the entire territory of the Republic of India! The major religions include Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, etc., etc.

The complexity of the Indian language can be seen in the banknotes, which are available in English and Hindi on the obverse

There are 15 other texts on the back

Due to the different customs, cultures, and products of each region throughout India, there are differences in cuisine. Moreover, because of the dominant Hindu caste system, different castes also have different cultures and taboos on their diets. It's really endless, basically if you walk down the streets of India and casually point to food that looks like curry dishes and say it's Indian food, you might be scolded by other Indians.

Specialties of the Indian region

However, although the cuisine in this region varies from place to place, one common feature is the mixture of a large number of spices to flavor the food.

The oldest known civilization on the Indian subcontinent is the ancient Indian civilization located in the Indus Valley between about 3300 and 1300 BC. The ancient Indian civilization was slightly later than the Mesopotamian civilization in the Two Rivers Valley and the ancient Egyptian civilization in the Nile Valley. At that time, India had not yet been invaded by Indo-European peoples from the northwest, and the Hinduism, caste system, etc., which everyone had heard of, had not yet germinated in the Indian subcontinent.

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of two ancient cities, Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, in the Indus Valley, and found a large number of stone tools, bronze tools, seals and crop remains, and the estimated population of the city is more than 40,000, and the entire range of ancient Indian civilization is about the part of present-day Pakistan and India. Until now, there have been a large number of archaeologists and scientists doing research in the area. One of the most interesting studies is that archaeologists have found some residues between the teeth and clay pot fragments of human skulls excavated in the area, and after research, scientists found that they included traces of ginger, turmeric, fennel and other spices, as well as some cereal starch, and the age was at least 4,000 years ago.

In such clay pots, scientists have found traces of the use of spices in ancient Indian civilizations

In other words, 4,000 years ago, humans in this region began to use these spices as food flavors, and ginger, turmeric, and fennel are the main spices in the so-called curry in modern times.

Later, the Indo-European peoples in the northwest invaded the Indian subcontinent and brought with them their myths and cultures, and in order to dominate the original peoples in the region, they tied the myths and social classes together, becoming the second civilization period of Indian history - the Ganges civilization (also known as the Vedic culture era).

The Indo-Europeans used Vedic mythology to change the socio-cultural relations of the indigenous inhabitants with Hinduism, but they embraced all kinds of spice combinations. Just like the ancient Indians, they began to mix and match seeds, buds, rhizomes and leaves of various spice plants from all over the world as food flavoring. It is speculated that the methods used at that time should have been similar to those of modern times, which were first ground with a stone mortar or a mortar mashed. Mix according to your taste preferences and habits, and then use it as a seasoning for food.

But in most parts of India, there is no food called curry! Many dishes in India are made with a lot of spices, but there is no one called Curry! So why did we all call this spice-mixed food for curry later? This has to go back to the history of India, but then we have to turn a little faster, lest we can't finish it for three days and three nights.

Speaking of the Vedic period, the Indian region was divided into very, very many small city-states, for example, if you have heard a little Buddhist story, you will know that Shakyamuni Buddha was originally a prince of a small country.

There is a wonderful claim that Shakyamuni invented curry, which is not credible. Because the use of spices predates the time of Shakyamuni, and the term curry was coined much later.

These small states in the Indian region were divided and merged, and together with the invasions of the Arabs, Mongols, and Turks, some of them were united (or subordinated) under large empires (such as the Mauryan Empire, the Kushan Empire, the Gupta Dynasty...). Sometimes, it's scattered and independent. Eventually, after the Northern Mongol Empire split into many empires, one of the descendants of the Islamic Timurid Empire, entered India and established the Mughal Empire.

Territory of the Mughal Empire in its heyday

The rule of the Mughal Empire was actually a multi-layered structure, with the emperor at the top, of course, and the various regions were actually different city-states, large and small, but the small kings (Rajas) of these city-states were all subject to the emperor. However, the Mughal Empire, under the efforts of successive emperors, once unified almost the entire Indian region, and was once the richest empire in the world at that time! But later, due to internal religious and political conflicts, it also quickly and slowly weakened.

The Taj Mahal is a representative architectural work of the Mughal Empire, and the construction of this mausoleum building coincides with the key point of the empire's transition from prosperity to decline. It's embarrassing

Unfortunately, when the Mughal Empire declined, the era of colonial empires in the West officially began! Colonial empires from Europe, including Portugal, the Netherlands, the British, and the French, had a foothold in Goa, Mumbai, and other places, and the Portuguese soon discovered the wonderful use of Indian spices and brought them back to Portugal to promote it, and were welcomed in Portugal and Spain.

Among the so-called Portuguese dishes in Macau, the most famous is this Portuguese chicken, which uses spice powder similar to today's curry powder, and many restaurants use curry powder directly to make this dish

It was the British East India Company that achieved a great victory in India, and in 1757 the Battle of Plassey broke out between the Mughal Empire and the English East India Company. The British East India Company won the victory, gradually unified the whole of India, and was almost the only commercial company in human history that once held the administrative power of a large area, the invincible military power and the huge profits in the region. (The Dutch East India Company is much inferior to it, and it finally lost money by operating Taiwan)

The flag of the British East India Company is said to have been the inspiration for the American flag

The armed forces of the British East India Company, officer and soldier attire

The East India Company needed a large number of military, accounting, and clerical personnel to run India, all of which were brought in by the British in the early days. These Britons lived in India and even formed families to have children, gradually became accustomed to the taste of Indian spices, and gradually brought Indian spice cuisine back to the UK. In addition to using India to form a triangular trade network with China for the triangular trade of silk, tea, saltpeter, opium, etc., the East India Company also began to promote Indian spices as a novel foreign product to Britain and even to British colonies around the world.

In 1784, a merchant advertised Indian curry powder in the London Morning Newspaper (the forerunner of the Daily Telegraph). This is the first time the term curry curry has appeared in the UK.

The first printed material in the world with the word CurryPowder was a sales pitch

Curry powder, a new term that doesn't understand grammar

Where did the term curry Curry come from? This is actually a menu word coined by a British businessman, and it is also an exotic but nonsensical pseudo-loanword. How so?

According to research, the word Curry is supposed to come from the Tamil word Kari in southern India, which originally referred to the spicy sauce mixed with various spices (not necessarily ingredient) in the unique dishes of the Tanmil people, and stews rich in this sauce.

The Tanmil people are found in southern India and northeastern Sri Lanka, and are different from the inhabitants of the eastern, western and northern parts of India, which are mainly Indo-European and mixed with other native Indian ethnic groups. At that time, there was no dish called Curry (or Kari) in most parts of India.

In the family photos of Tanmir, it can be seen that the race is not the same as the appearance of other places in India

In other words, curry powder means "spicy sauce powder", and since it is a sauce, how can it be powdered? At that time, there was no instant sauce powder made by modern technology, in other words, it was just a spice powder for curry, and spice powder actually has a special term in India.

Most of the languages spoken in India (including Tamil) refer to the spice mixture as Masala. Masala means mixed spice powder, spice puree pounded with spice powder and fresh spices such as ginger, onion, chili, etc.

Masala

Masala doesn't have a specific recipe, most families in India usually go to the market to buy a lot of spices, and when cooking, this two spoonfuls and that spoonful, so that the mother who cooks at home thinks that this dish should be paired with which spices she prepares Masala on the spot, and then starts cooking all kinds of delicious dishes (these dishes are not necessarily called Kari)

So seriously, the curry powder sold by British merchants at that time should actually be called Garam Masala (spicy spice powder), which in addition to some commonly used spice powders in India (including turmeric, cumin, white cardamom, coriander, white pepper, mustard, cloves, etc.) and paprika imported from the Americas but popular among Indians, was also added. Garam Masala spice shop owners in India make their own blends of mixed spice powders, which Indians use to add flavour but not necessarily to replace all home spice recipes.

Curry Pandemic

Although the term curry powder is nonsense from the Indian point of view, it is amazing that this mixed spice powder (Masala) from India quickly became popular in the United Kingdom, which is a rare food revolution for British people who are not willing to try new flavors, and for a while, eating curry in Britain has become quite a fashion trend.

A lithograph depicting a curry meal eaten in the Victorian era

Later, curry powder spread all over the world with the footsteps of British merchants, and the British ate curry and spread curry powder and cooking methods to all parts of the world. By the beginning of the 20th century at the latest, curry had spread across five continents. Everyone also followed the British to call this Indian spice powder curry powder, and the food cooked with curry powder is called curry.

Later, even the Indians didn't bother to correct everyone, because they were really used to it. Even Indians are accustomed to using the word curry when introducing Indian food to foreigners (although they still find it inexplicable in their hearts), and although curry is known all over the world, it is the British, Southeast Asians, and East Asians who love curry the most.

Curry in the UK

In 1858, after the East India Company deposed the last emperor of the Mughal Empire, the British government relieved the company of administrative power in India, and British India was changed to a governor-general and civilian rule sent by the British government, becoming a formal colony, and Queen Victoria was crowned the emperor of India in 1877, and since then the British king has been the emperor of India until World War II, Britain can no longer take care of India's colonial rule, and India has also begun its own independence movement, Because of the differences of opinion among the various religious and ethnic forces in India, the Indian independence movement began several different directions, forming several states within the modern Indian region.

On August 14, 1947, Pakistan in the Indian region became independent, and the Republic of India became independent the next day. Later, in 1972, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan. India's independence after World War II was the turning point that really turned curry into Britain's most important food culture. After the independence of India and Pakistan, many second- and third-generation British Indians who had settled in India returned to Britain, and many Indians immigrated to Britain through various connections.

Of course, these people who are accustomed to eating rich spice dishes must not be satisfied with British curry. As a result, Indian recipes, chefs, and even Indian restaurants were introduced. According to statistics, by the end of 2013, there were more than 9,000 Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants in the UK, and more than 23 million people ate curry every week (the population of the UK is only more than 60 million). The UK even has a so-called National Curry Week, which hosts the UK Curry Award every year. Many people in the UK even think that curry is a British food.

The logo of the British National Curry Week

So why do Asians love curry too? This is divided into two regions, Southeast Asia and East Asia (especially Japan). Southeast Asia was introduced to Hinduism and caste systems from India in the West for some time in ancient times, the most obvious of which are Angkor Wat and Bali. The architecture of Angkor Wat (the Khmer Empire) is almost entirely Hindu, and the Balinese people still practice Hinduism today. During the time of the spread of Hinduism to the East, this method of seasoning with spices was also introduced to Southeast Asia.

So if you are interested, you can pay a little attention to it, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, all have this spice food culture. People rightfully call it Thai curry, Burmese curry, Indonesian curry, ......, even though they don't call it curry in their own language. However, if you use what is called curry powder in modern times, or if you want to introduce your country's food to foreigners, you still use the word Curry.

The making of Thai green curry begins with mashing spices, and in Thai it is called kaengkhiaowan, which means green sweet sauce. The Thai language does not call this sauce curry, but if it is a food made with commercially available curry powder, it is added with Gali

Japanese curry is believed to have been introduced after the Meiji Restoration due to the construction of the navy, on the one hand, for the sake of a healthy diet at sea, and on the other hand, after referring to the system of the British navy. Since the days of the Imperial Japan, the Japanese Navy has maintained the habit of eating curry one day a week (this can help officers and soldiers sense the date, and when they eat curry, they will know that another week has passed). Navy curry has gradually spread to the people, because the eating habits of the Japanese are different from those of the United Kingdom and India. Japanese people eat a lot of rice, so in order to make the curry sauce go well with the rice, the amount of sauce is increased, and the Roux technique of French cuisine (stir-frying flour in oil and then stirring with liquid to thicken it) is used to make the sauce thicker.

This style of naval curry was later introduced to the people, and it was called Western-style curry because of the use of the French Roux technique. After the Japanese have improved their own seasoning (for example, with the addition of fruits, honey, milk, etc.), Japanese curry is now more of a Japanese curry than a Western-style curry.

In fact, after years of evolution, the so-called Chinese curry (mostly found in some small restaurants and even roadside stalls) is mostly turmeric and cumin in terms of spice proportion, with a lot less layering, and the ingredients are also simplified into meat, potatoes and carrots, and they are also thickened with too white powdery water. Although it is not as rich as the smell of Japanese curry or even British curry, it can still be nostalgic occasionally.

How to make a good curry? In fact, if you read the above text a little carefully, you can probably understand that "there is no curry dish that can be called orthodox curry", and there is no curry powder and curry dish in the birthplace of curry spices, let alone the successor countries of these curries around the world.

If you like to eat Japanese curry, the easiest way is to buy curry cubes, Japanese curry cubes have all the spices, concentrated broth, thickeners, fruits, etc. in Japanese curry have been condensed into pieces, according to the instructions on the package as concocted, but although the taste is also friendly and delicious, but each may be similar to cook, can not be called a representative of the family's unique cuisine or personal handmade dishes (but this can be solved by a way, more on later).

The curry cubes produced by House are probably the most well-known curry flavors in Japan, and even Fu Peimei loves to use them very much (it's true)

And if you like to do everything from scratch, you can start by choosing curry powder, just like me. Unless you have no other choice, don't buy curry powder that is usually available in supermarkets if you want to make a curry with a special flavor. Of course, I wouldn't tell you that you should buy all kinds of spice powders and make them yourself, which is too labor-intensive (unless you have a professional curry education or your mother is Indian). Where should you go to find a special curry powder? At the moment, I think the best way to do this is to buy curry noodles from the UK or from Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Because the British like to eat curry, and there are many British people of Indian origin, if the curry powder is not delicious, I am afraid that the brand will not survive the winter after its launch in the summer. So basically, I bought curry noodles from the UK, and my experience so far is very good, the fragrance is rich and layered, and there are many choices, some are advertised as suitable for Tikka (roast chicken or British curry chicken), and some are advertised as suitable for stews. No matter what is advertised on the jar, it will have a special effect that surpasses that of curry powder in Taiwanese supermarkets!

The two cans of British curry powder that I have at home taste good, which are very different from Chinese curry powder, and the aroma and spicinessness are much better. I have a few cans of British curry powder at home, and I usually go to the supermarket when I go abroad to see if there is any British curry powder and buy a few cans and save it. I don't know if there will be goods in Taiwan's high-end supermarkets.

Another option is to look for curry noodles from Pakistan or Bangladesh. These two countries also belong to the region of India in general, but not as much as the people of the Republic of India care about the name curry powder. Since foreigners like to call it curry powder and like to buy it, Pakistani and Bangladeshi companies will mix some Garam Masala spice powder and call it curry powder and export it to the world. This kind of curry powder is not available in high-end supermarkets in China, but it is sold in some imported supermarkets or Southeast Asian food stores. The quality is very high, guaranteed to be a good customer, and the price is not as expensive as British curry.

Shan, the Pakistani brand, makes curry powder, which can be bought in some Southeast Asian food stores or imported supermarkets in China, and after having high-quality curry powder, in fact, whether it is curry chicken or curry cow, the procedure will not be too difficult, but since the curry powder originated in India, then we refer to the Indian cooking procedure will be helpful.

Indian stews (regardless of region) are usually made by chopping fresh spices until they are extremely chopped (or even mashed), then mixed with Masala spice powder and sautéed in oil to bring out the aroma of the whole spice! Then simmer, wait until the dish is almost finished, and then make up for the aroma that has been volatilized due to the temperature with the spice powder and continue to simmer for about 20~30 minutes. Some yogurt, sour cream and even milk are also added to round out the flavor of the whole pot stew.

Basically, if we make curry the same way that Indians make stews, it will have a better effect. Didn't you mention that there is a little secret to making the flavor of Japanese curry cubes more special? The same is true for the same reason, add a tablespoon of good curry powder 30 minutes before the stew is risen, and then add 100cc of yogurt. The curry cooked from the entire Japanese curry cube will be greatly improved because of this small action!

The last two small keys, the broth thickens with carrots and potatoes. Most Taiwanese people are still used to the curry soup being thicker, so I will thicken it, but I won't use too white powder to thicken it, because it will dilute the aroma that is hard to boil and cook. I recommend thickening it with the Roux technique of Japanese curry (I'll teach you how to do it below). Then there are carrots and potatoes, have you ever thought about the necessity of these two in curry?

Potatoes may be a bit necessary because they taste fluffy and can absorb a little bit of soup, but carrots are really not necessary, carrots don't make curry more delicious because I don't think it tastes like curry. If you really want to add some vegetables for a balanced nutrition, I would recommend tomatoes, as many Indian stews also have tomatoes. Here's how to make beef curry (meat can be changed to your liking)

Beef curry

Ingredients: (6 servings):

Ingredients:

Beef: 600g (any part of the car, cut into cubes according to preference)

Flavored vegetables and seasonings:

Onion: 1 (finely chopped)

Garlic: 10g (minced)

Ginger: 5g (minced)

Chili pepper: 1 stalk (minced, depending on personal preference)

Flour: 3 tablespoons

Original yogurine: 100 grams

Coriander: A little

Salt, sugar, cooking oil: to taste

Water: 600~1000cc(视状况而定)

Perfume:

Curry powder: 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp

Paprika: 1 teaspoon (depending on personal preference)

Vegetable:

Potato: 1 (diced)

Beef tomatoes: 1 piece (peeled and diced)

Method:

First of all, prepare the ingredients, finely chop the onion, ginger, peeled garlic, and chili pepper (the finer the better). If you have a food processor, take it out and use it

Next, fry the meat and remember not to fry too many pieces at a time (don't spread the whole pan) so that the temperature of the pan does not drop too quickly

Don't fry too many pieces of meat at a time

Heat a pan, add about 3 tablespoons of cooking oil, stir-fry the onion first, stir-fry until transparent, then add minced ginger, minced garlic and chili. Stir-fry until fragrant, then add 3 tbsp flour and 3 tbsp curry powder. Stir-fry over low heat (don't get confused with the order of this paragraph)

It is necessary to stir-fry until the flour is evenly fried and there is no obvious graining, at this time, the aroma of the curry powder should have been fried, and the flour is stained with fat (so that when you add water, it will not clump together)

Add water, add a little at a time, each time you add water, you have to use a wooden spoon to keep stirring until you stir well, then add a little more water and stir well, then add water, stir well. Stir in about 600cc of water until you add about 600cc of water. At this point, it will have a viscous consistency like a thick soup.

Add the fried beef and peeled and diced tomatoes to a pan and bring to a boil over high heat

Change the contents of the pot from the pan to the stockpot, measure the amount of water, cover at least all the meat, and if the water is not enough, add a little more but no more than 1000cc. Stir until well while adding water (at this time, the soup has already been diluted, so it is easy to stir well). Fire and heat until rolling. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours (or 2.5 hours in a smoldering pan), always concerned and stirring from time to time (because the spices and aromatic vegetables can easily sink to the bottom and burn). If you use a smoldering pan, you don't need to stir it.

After 2 hours, add 1 tbsp curry powder and 100cc of original yogurt. After stirring well, add the potato wedges (add them at this time to avoid cooking too rotten and melting), and continue to simmer

Simmer for another 30 minutes, season with salt and sugar (add a little at a time to taste and then increase), remove from the pan and serve on a plate, garnish with coriander. The beef curry is done.

This beef curry can be freely swapped for other meats and can be eaten as a dish for dinner or directly as a curry rice. As long as the curry powder is well chosen, it tastes a little bit of Indian restaurant curry flavor (if you want to be closer to Indian restaurant curry, don't add flour, the amount of water is reduced to 300~600cc, add more coriander and stir well before cooking), which is different from ordinary Japanese and Taiwanese curry. It was fragrant and delicious. If you can buy non-Chinese curry noodles, I recommend giving this recipe a try.