There’s not many things that are more satisfactory than that moment when you realise that what seems an impossible discipline is actually quite simple. This thrilling moment is honestly similar to when Keanu Reeves learns to read the Matrix. A totally exhilarating rush of clarity. Well, this is a similar feeling that often hits people when they realise that Indian home cooking isn’t that difficult. We at Maharaja stick to very few simple, yet delicious principles when making all of our curries. We have decided to share a few of these below in order to help your Indian cuisine cooking a little easier.
Principle 1:
Be generous with your spices. These will not only bring out flavour, but they will also add texture to your Indian dishes. Absolutely every supermarket sells spices in containers. However, if you are an Indian food lover and buy your spices in bigger packets from Asian supermarkets, you should spoon your spices into your dishes with a free hand and store them in the freezer so they don’t spoil or go stale.
Principle 2:
Before you begin, you should decide how you are going to cook your onion, ginger and garlic (the three key ingredients to any Indian dish). You should soften these ingredients without colouring for a lighter curry, or cook them for longer and caramelise them for a richer and darker dish.
Principle 3:
A very important decision to make before starting to make your Indian curry is which sauce will give your dish its body. This is usually, or a combination of: tomatoes, pureed peppers or chillies, cream or yoghurt, coconut milk, finely pureed onion or spinach.
If you bare the above principles in mind, then making a curry will become very simple and pleasurable. But remember that you are free to improvise with any Indian dish. We advise that you do this to find your own favourite flavours and become the master of your very own curry matrix.