There is a real art to Indian cookery. It involves the ability to masterfully blend and balance an incredible range of spices and herbs. It also requires skilled cooking techniques, some of which have been conveniently adapted for Western style kitchens. More and more people are experimenting with the complex flavours of Indian food in their own homes.
One of the best tips for using spices in any Indian dish is to dry roast them over a low heat. Mix all the spices you need together, and use a pestle and mortar for the ones that need to be crushed, such as cardamom and mustard seeds. Add them to a dry frying pan and simply allow them to gradually heat up. This releases their flavour making them much more aromatic and pungent. If you don’t fancy using a pestle a mortar to crush the spices you can always use a coffee grinder, but this will tend to grind them up quite finely, so it depends on personal preference.
In French cooking, sauces are thickened by making a roux with butter and flour. In Indian cookery the use of a specially made spice paste, yoghurt, tomatoes or coconut the same effects will be achieved. Of course whatever you use will also add even more flavours to the dish. Perhaps one the most popular recipes to try at home is the curry. There are so many different types of curry; from vegetables based ones to meat or seafood based ones. Some like the vindaloo are extremely hot while others like the korma are more creamy and mild. The key to a great curry is to build a good solid curry base; this gives your dish complexity of flavours, depth and intensity.
To build a curry base first to look to the water being used to cook any lentils or legumes. This water should be spiced and seasoned, not just with salt. The spices in the water will infuse into the legumes or lentils. Once cooked adding a spice paste, tamarind or tomatoes will bring acidity, tartness and colour. Dry roasted spices can also be added toward the end of cooking while for curries that are intended to be mild, the addition of yoghurt, buttermilk or reduced milk will soften flavours and add creaminess.