Who doesn’t like a good curry? It is the most popular Indian dish outside of India, but calling it a dish would actually be a huge understatement. Curry is a sauce prepared with a mixture of spices (usually including chillies), with addition of fish, veggies, meat, paneer, and really anything you can come up with. Because curries are so versatile specific curry dishes or types of curry have their own names. Hey, curries can even be sweet! If you think that’s awesome, wait till you read these 15 facts about curry.
There are up to 60 ingredients curries are made from, all of which vary according region, state, and tradition. A typical curry usually includes cardamom, coriander, fennel, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and of course chili pepper.
In Indian menus you’ll usually find the world ‘masala’, which simply means ‘spices’. Similarly, in Western menus the word ‘curry’ is used to signify a dish prepared with a variety of spices.
Black cardamom, also known as the Queen of Spices, is a necessary ingredient in all Indian curries.
The word curry comes from ‘kari’, which means ‘sauce’ in Tamil language. The term became largely used outside of India after the East India Company came in contact with the Tamil people in Chennai.
The word ‘curry’ can actually mean a few things: a mix of spices, the saucy dish we all love so much, or simply curry leaves, which are vastly used in Indian cuisine as well.
The first ever curry recipe recorded outside of India was found in “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse” book dated back to 1747.
Curry is a truly versatile dish and can include meat, fish, seafood, and vegetables. It goes incredibly well with rice and different kinds of Indian bread like chapati or naan.
Curries can be “wet” or “dry”. “Wet” curry is prepared with lentil dal, coconut milk, or yoghurt, while in “dry” curries the spices themselves become a sort of paste. You can order both and eat them simultaneously!
You’ll be delighted to find out that curries exist in many other cuisines all over the world – Japanese, Vietnamese, Caribbean, and Thai. Of course, each of them offers a different flavour!
You might be used to the yellow-coloured curry, but curries come in different colours, depending on the ingredients. Yellow curry becomes so when there is turmeric in the mix.
Every curry base has one very special spice called Jeera (cumin). It’s a powerful antioxidant and is packed with magnesium, calcium, and iron.
If you like curry, you’ve probably tried some dishes with the word ‘tikka’ in their title, be it vegetable, paneer, or meat. Tikka means ‘pieces’, so when you hear Chicken Tikka Masala – this means the curry is prepared with diced chicken. By the way, this is the most popular curry dish outside of India!
The world’s most famous curry restaurant is called Veeraswamy Restaurant. It is situated on Regent Street, in London’s West End. It serves a variety of delicious curry since 1926.
If you like spicy dishes you should try the famous Phaal curry. The chefs actually wear gas masks while making it because one of its key ingredients is Bhut Jolokia – the hottest chili in the world.
The world’s largest curry in the world was prepared in Singapore by the Indian Chefs and Culinary Association on August 1, 2015. It weighed 15.34 tons!
