Location of India: Southern Asia
The climate of India has a wide range of weather conditions.
Indian cooking is geared for flexibility. It is not necessary to stick rigidly to a recipe, you can always increase or lessen any spice according to taste. As a general rule is is better to make a curry a few hours in advance, as spices take a little time to develop and impart their flavor to the food. When preparing food it is important to remember a few points:
- all the vegetables should be of the same size to create a good presentation, and this will also help to ensure even cooking.
- all vegetables are first peeled or skinned unless otherwise stated. If not used at once they should be soaked in water to prevent discoloration, especially potatoes and carrots.
- for curries all meat is usually cut into bite-sized pieces.
Masalas are spices and other seasoning ground together to form the basis for Indian sauces. Wet masala is ground in a stone mortar; liquids like water or vinegar are added during the grinding process to create a harmonious blend. Sometimes nuts, coconut, onion or garlic can also be added. In the South freshly ground masalas are preferred to make the gravies that go with the staple, rice. In the north, which has a longer winter when fresh spices are not easy to get hold of, dried, powdered spices are commonly used to flavour the gravy-less dishes preferred with rotis that are the staple. There are no hard and fast rules for the use of spices in particular recipes, but there are basic guidelines based on commonsense. Turmeric, coriander, cumin, pepper have too strong and bitter a taste to be good additions to desserts. However saffron, cardamoms, cinnamon that are used to make garam masala are freely used in sweets. That's because most of the halwas etc that call for their use are winter favourites and a little heat is welcome in the cold northern winter.
Chicken Curry In a Coconut Base
curry chicken originated in India but americans eat it
