Good spices in curry
 

I saw a couple old threads about curry on here, but my wife and I tried to make some last night and while it wasn't bad, it sure smelled a lot better than it tasted. It just didn't have 'it'

Anyone have any suggestions on what sort of spice to add to curry? We really only had the curry powder and coconut milk (it was supposed to be a thai curry), plus the veggies and chicken.

Afterwards we added a little cinnamon sugar which helped a bit, but its still missing something....

Help!

CHILIES!!!

At least that what I would add. I LOVE spiciness.

I've always liked using ginger with curry.

Sorry, curry is one of the only things I don't like. In cooking for others, I find that curry is often enjoyed with cumin, cayenne, ginger, garlic (which I consider a spice), coriander, cayenne, and safron.

If you're looking for a cocnut/curry sauce, I found one on foodtv.com care of Susannah Donnelly:
In a medium bowl, combine all of the sauce ingredients, whisk until thoroughly combined. I've found that this goes well with chicken or seafood (scallions, scallops, even shrimp). If you try that and it doesn't work, tell me what about it doesn't work.

The thing about any spice is that it's your tongue that's going to decide if it's good or not. Feel free to change and adapt your recipie to fit your personal flavor.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it. I am not the greatest at picking spices (garlic is my default) so all this is great stuff.

Me too!

I either cook my food with garlic or some type of hot stuff (like chili soaked olive oil or tabasco).

Thanks for asking about the curry though I'm gonna give it a try as well.

i love curry but i've never made it, how ever i can recomend what to say for grace:

good rice, good curry, good Gandhi lets hurry.

(ala simpsons)

garam marsala is the curry spice I like best.

I love cooking curries but I do find it very hard to adlib. If you are interested in making curries from scratch you will need a HUGE selection of spices; the art of indian cookery is the subtle combination of these to make a wonderful variety of flavours. Get a cookery book by Madhur Jaffrey, either "Indian Cookery" or the "Ultimate Curry Bible", complicated but easy to follow with detailed (sometimes too much so) instructions.

Seriously, get one of those books, I PROMISE you, you will be making the tastiest curries you've ever had....

I just bought some recently.

What do you do with it? I'm courious how you incorporate it into your food.

Hmm, just added a TSP of that suff into egg whites which was fried in a pan with pam (hey that rhymes!).

Tastes like nutmeg.

I'm making another with ginger, chili poweder, and tumeric. I'll let you know how it comes out.

I hate to state the obvious, but that's my name. Indian curry and Thai curry are completely different. Most Thai curries are coconut milk-based, and they have a very different flavor than Indian curries.

Personally, I prefer Indian curries because they usually don't have coconut milk. Coconut milk seems to suppress the flavor of the curry too much for my taste, and it always tastes like something is missing. Hambone, you might want to try an Indian curry recipe and maybe you'll find the 'it' you're looking for.

Green Curry Paste

1 ts Cumin seeds
1 ts Coriander seeds
6 Fresh green chilies, Chopped
1 tb Chopped lemon grass
1 ts Chopped coriander root
1 tb Chopped shallots
1 tb Chopped garlic
1 ts Chopped galangal
7 Peppercorns
1 ts Salt
1 ts Shrimp paste

This how to make it... it's different from Indian curries.

Interesting that you get that taste-- garam masala (i've made my own) is a mixture of pepper, Cloves, Cinnamon, cardamom, Cumin, Coriander and Bay leaves -- kind of all ground up...

I like it in chicken soup - it gives it a bunch more flavor...

Try heating it up in a dry skillet- you'll deepen the flavor of it..

Don't have time to get into it too much, but I agree with what Mal touched on.

Part of the key to getting curry right is to cook the actual spices even before adding the main "vehicle" (chicken or whatever). I've also learned that the fat mixed with the spices cooking is the essence of curry.

More later if I have time.

Tried warming up a tsp in a TBSP of EVOO. Made it taste sweeter. I didn't get much of a curry flavor. Next time I'll try a dry skillet like you said.

Hmm, is it time to start an Indian curry thread? :p

buying curry in the spice aisle in the grocery store, depending on the brand that you buy you will get a different flavor.. the mass produced brand, like mccormacks is pretty bland as curry goes... if you can find the more authentic curries (like look at what the indian people are buying) you'll get a much better curry..

This is all great. Now I want to try all of this.

I personally like both the Indian and Thai versions of curry (yes I know its a huge difference...I work with mostly all Indian people...and I can't ask them since they each seem to have a different word for every ingredient so I get totally confused)

I saw the new Indian curry thread, so this is wonderful :)

I know i'm gonna spell it wrong but Madhur Jaffrey has a bunch of great Indian cookbooks out that use a lot of curries, and are pretty educational too.. and she doesn't use a lot of really obscure items either.

She's also got a series of veg head cookbooks as well - that aren't too bad...

the best spices to add to curry would be authentic indian masala, some curry leaves, a few mustard seeds, a few jeera seeds and tomato paste mixed with a little bit of sugar and water,don't forget the garlic(crushed).

when the oil is hot in your pot, put in your garlic and the mustard and jeera seeds so the heat brings out the flavour of the seeds.( not too many, you don't want the seeds overpowering your curry. just a picnh or so of each.) add your onions and 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic. let that cook for about 2 mins. add 2 tblsp masala and one stalk of chunky cut up curry leaves. add some water to make a little gravy so it doesnt burn at the bottom. add your meat or chicken and your salt to your taste. let that cook for about 10-15 mins. take about 5 tspn tomato paste in a cup with 5 tspn sugar. add water to the top. mix until it makes a gravy like substance. pour into pot and let that simmer for about 5 mins. peel your potatoes, cut them up into big chunks or however you like them. put in pot and wait until potatoes are soft. make sure you put your pot on low and let it simmer until then. enjoy with some rice.:thumbsup: ;) hope you guys can get some of the stuff i mentioned. good luck and let me know how it goes.

I use a curry "cake"...kinda of a paste with the consistency of a warm chocolate bar, that I get from the store, combined with maharajah curry spice mix from Pensky's (sp?) Spices. Awesome and dead easy curry every time.

You know, curcumin (the main ingredient of curry yellow) is extreemly resistant to skin melanoma...