BACK TO BASICS
BACK TO BASICS
To be able to produce consistent good curries there are various cooking techniques to be mastered. I will go through these stages individually later. A good piece of advice is if you burn or spoil any of these stages it is vital that do not go any further with the cooking of the meal. It is better to start again and waste a few minutes of your time and a few spices rather than struggle on with the meal only to throw it away at the end of a few hours cooking. You cannot rectify any mistakes made during this part of the meal preparation. Master these steps and you will produce good curries repeatedly.
The thing to aim for is to produce the correct mixture and the preparation of spices for a particular dish, and correct texture. The following are the stages to a perfect authentic curry:
The masala is not a cooking method but a combination of the selected ground spices, which makes Indian cooking so distinctive. In India families pride themselves on their own combination of the spices to produce a particular dish each claiming to have the right combination of quantity, quality and types of spices for the meal. This combination is known as the Masala or spice mixture.
The Bhoona is the Hindi term for cooking the combination of spices (Masala) in hot oil to release the natural oils and flavours of the spices and to remove the raw taste. To ensure that you do not burn the Masala it is recommended that you make your Masala into a stiff paste before frying in oil (Bhoona). To do this thoroughly mix your Masala and start to add enough water until it becomes a stiff paste. Once this is achieved, leave the paste for a few minutes if after a few minutes it seems to be dry add more water to achieve a stiff paste again. The Bhoona I believe to be the most single important process in making a perfect curry.
The process of frying whole spices is known as the (Bargar) and is a technique used for the same reasons as the Bhoona, to cook out the raw taste from the spices. The oil used should be hot and the spices added whole with no water added. It is again vital that care is taken not to burn the spices. The spices are cooked the moment they become coloured and start to float do not let them blacken. This process can be very quick especially with the small spices like cumin seeds.
The puree is the basis for nearly all curries. I recommend you make a large batch and freeze in portions to be used each time you want to make a curry.
Ingredients
Chop all the vegetables and heat half of the oil, fry the ingredients until they become very soft and translucent, do not let it burn at this stage, about 15 minutes. Leave to cool then place in a food processor and blitz to a puree. Heat the remaining oil and again fry the puree about 15 minutes being careful not to allow it to stick allow to cool then divide into equal portions about 10 in this case and freeze. Then whenever you set out to make a curry start with a portion of puree and you will obtain the correct texture of a perfect curry every time.
