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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4055 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 17, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What kind of curries are you struggling with Indian or Thai?

Indian. (But I'd love to try thai, since the only restaurant within a hundred miles just microwaves all their stuff.)

Think I've got it though. I'd switched from a standard slow cook that was giving wonderful roasted-flavor to the faster and easier to batch-cook base gravy method, and it wasn't nearly as good for a while.

Finally figured out the point of layering spices so you get both fresh flavour and the slow-roasted taste. The one tonight was excellent, just blew my head off a bit too much. Last things I need are that smoky flavor and a few missing whole spices.

Every time I butcher an animal now all the bones go in the pressure cooker with some old onions and veg, to make either a base gravy or a stew base (do the indians not use bones except for one-pot bone-in stuff?). 2-3 shoulders get diced & pre-cooked immediately rather than wrapped, then put in freezer portions along with the gravy.

Makes it much easier to do big batch cooking without having way too much of one curry, and keeping it flexible for flavour and heat level.

(But I'd love to try thai, since the only restaurant within a hundred miles just microwaves all their stuff.)

You must really live in the middle of nowhere. Thai restaurants are usually subsidized by Thailands government as a part of their "Gastro Diplomacy program". Which is one of the reasons that Thai food is usually more consistent in taste/quality and so numerous relative to other foreign ethnic restaurants (having accounted for population ratio).

Thai curry is much easier than Indian curry imo. Less technique is required. And if you start off with a good curry paste, coconut milk and fish sauce; you are more or less all the way there. All those things can be ordered online.

Think I've got it though. I'd switched from a standard slow cook that was giving wonderful roasted-flavor to the faster and easier to batch-cook base gravy method, and it wasn't nearly as good for a while.

The base gravy is a technique not from Indian cooking but British Indian cooking. Some Indian restaurants have also adopted it because it makes cooking restaurant food a lot easier, but it's not a necessary component to good curries.

And also all curries cooked with the base gravy taste kind of the same. In India they start every different curry from scratch, and they don't all taste the same as they often end up doing in Western Indian restaurants.

do the indians not use bones except for one-pot bone-in stuff?

Nope.

Using Meat/bones or base ingredients like onions/carrots for a baseline flavor is a Western (French) tradition. Indian cuisine mostly relies on spices and East Asian cooking on condiments/sauces.

However, Indian curries are improved using western techniques such as using stock instead of water, browning meat, etc.

Finally figured out the point of layering spices

This is the key.

You also need to fry the initial batch of spices in the pan a lot longer than you think. Usually something wet like onions or tomatoes or coconut paste is there to prevent things from burning, that gives you the roasted flavor and prevents you from ruining your curry with the overwhelming taste of raw spices.

The goal isn't for a curry to taste spicy, but balanced.

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