If you read my article, Curry – A Journey, published on the Curry page of this site, you’ll know that my first experiences of the dish were of the generic variety which the British invariably cooked and ate when living abroad a few decades ago. You’ll also know that I then discovered “real” Indian cookery and decided that I needed to learn how to cook the stuff myself as I couldn’t afford to eat out that much.
My first stop was a local bookshop, where books on Indian cuisine were somewhat limited. However, I struck luckily and discovered a book called Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey – what a find. It was written in simple language but with lovely descriptive text and recommendations on what to serve with what; it was just what I had been looking for.
However, there was a stumbling block: the endless list of spices, seasonings, and flavorings in the front of the book. I didn’t know where to start – I’d heard of quite a lot of them, having watched a few TV programs on Indian cooking, but, “help,” I thought, “buying that many all at once is going to cost a fortune.” If you’re considering the same, don’t panic—Check in your store cupboard. You probably already have some of the items you will need. For example, look for black peppercorns, bay leaves, chilli powder (if you’re already a fan of chili con Carne), ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon if you bake cakes or apple pies. Maybe you’ll find mustard seeds if you do your pickling and sesame seeds if you make rolls or cook Chinese food. That only leaves a few essential ingredients that appear in many Indian recipes – cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cardamom. Often you need ground cumin and coriander, but if you buy the whole spices, you can grind them as necessary (and they keep longer that way too).
The other thing I did was choose a reasonably simple recipe to start with, and I just bought the spices I needed for that. The next time I wanted to cook an Indian meal, I chose another recipe with similar ingredients, so I had to buy a couple more things. Soon enough, I built up a whole store cupboard of the items I needed, and it didn’t have had such a drastic effect on my wallet.
Then there was no stopping me – I know some recipes by heart now, and you can do the same if you want to.
You don’t need special equipment for Indian cooking. However, I wouldn’t be without my electric coffee grinder (to grind spices), and it’s excellent (but not necessary) to have the traditional dishes to serve your meal in. Other than that, it would help if you had a bit of patience, and it’s fun to cook with a friend so that you can share the chopping and grinding or have someone read the recipe out to you step by step, so you don’t go wrong in the middle.
The flavors are great; a curry evening is friendly, so go on, give it a try.
You must be logged in to post a comment.