What is a Curry? -- By Chef Kunal Kapur

What is a Curry and what are its varieties?

Pic by Chef Kunal Kapur

As Indians our very fabric of existence is so intertwined, so mixed with different lifestyles, habits, religions, beliefs, from what we wear to whom we worship, from which side of bed to wake up as per vastu to which colour of clothes go well as per the auspicious day of the year.

But interesting as it really is that there’s one thing that effortlessly flows through us, soaking us all up as it travels from the length to breath of the country, almost as if hard wired culture that we call simply CURRY.

Curry, originally a British word given to Indian vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes in sauce, has become synonymous to the Indian cuisine around the globe. I am a strong believer that food is a living thing and curry is the blood line of our cuisine. But really what is a CURRY? In my opinion it is a vegetable/lentil/meat (or all mixed together) cooked with little or sufficient moisture and never finished completely dry, served with breads or rice. 

Cooking a curry is no simple business; I can vouch for the fact that cooking curry is one of the most complex dishes to prepare in the world. It takes a load of good experience to make sense out of multiple ingredients and spices and come up with a curry with clean flavours. It is a long process of cooking on slow flame that gives curry its unique character, taste and the sheen. A curry in order to be known as a great curry has to have a character that has a fine balance of ingredients. After all it is the balancing act chefs do in order to contradict the bitterness of spices with the sweetness of let’s say onions, and then offsetting the sweetness of the onions with the sourness or tomatoes or curd.

If we were to break up a curry then this is what we are primarily looking at…

·      Key ingredient – A key ingredient is the ingredient that we are set out to cook. Example. Chicken, fish, paneer, potato etc

·      Base – the base of the curry is the ingredient in which the key ingredient is cooked. Example. Browned onions, tomatoes, combination of both.

·      Souring agent – Almost every curry has a souring agent in them to offset any high note flaours and any bitterness from the spices. Example. Tomatoes, yogurt, tamarind, raw mango, kokum, kodumpulli etc.

·      Body – this ingredient can be sometimes same as the base or can be in addition to the base. This ingredient gives a flow to the curry. Example. Cashewnuts, almonds, cream, stock, flour, coconut, char magaz etc.

·      Flavourings – this can be in the form of spices, condiments, herbs or supporting vegetables. Example. Whole spices, powdered spices, saffron, garlic, mint etc.

Curries that we now popularly know of have evolved more at the restaurants than at home. In fact butter chicken which is considered a classical Punjabi curry was invented by a popular restaurant and was never a home dish. So much so that the chicken tikka masala that has become one of the most sought after dishes in the UK, is a completely restaurant dish as no house in India that at least I have heard of prepares that.

At a very amateurish level north Indian curries are categorized as per their colour. Namely red curry, yellow curry, white curry and O.T. (onion tomato masala) but a very systemized and better way that hyderabadies have described their curries is based on the consistency of the gravy. There are 3 varieties of curry depending on their consistency….

Pic by Chef Kunal Kapur

Shorva – Very thin soupy consistency. Something that we call “Tari”.

Khorma – Full bodied curries that have a coating consistency. Like the gosht ka korma or even the butter chicken will also fall in that category.

Khalia – very thick to almost semi dry curries are called khaliya. Classic example is the gosht ka khaliya, tawa mutton.

What is surprising is that KORMA or KURUMA (as it is called in the south India) just refers to the consistency of the curry and no more than that. Very often we misjudge a korma to be a gravy that is very heavy laced with nuts, cream and desi ghee. That is myth and a lot of restaurants are responsible for that who have used the name “Korma” and whipped up dishes under that name using any costly ingredient. 

The truth also is that dry fruits were used to give body and volume to the curries and used mostly to thicken the curry to attain a specific consistency. In the south the same is attained using coconut as it is in abundance there. 

But the real challenge for a chef today in maintain consistency is the changing quality of the raw materials. Often in my kitchen I find two packets of turmeric from the same brand with completely different hues. The same is with other powdered spices a lot of times. This I think is the main reason why it is difficult to document a proper Indian recipe that will work every time. 

But whatever it is one thing is for sure that, Curry cooking is an art like any other form that we cherish. It requires love, patience, passion, care, progression and above all acceptance to survive and be savored. We should take pride for being a part of this heritage that I call CURRY CULTURE.