Curry Nights #1 - South India

And so my quest for curry greatness begins. This weekend, we invited two couples over to act as guinea pigs while I tried a few new recipes: shallow-fried masala sardines, pork vindaloo, prawn and pumpkin curry, and a vegetarian dish with lentils, spinach and tomato. I even tried making my own roti but this kind of evolved into something else...

Like most of India, the South is primarily Hindu although it has a strong Muslim influence courtesy of Medieval Arab invaders. From the 17th Century, European powers fought for control of this  region, not only for it's strategic importance as a stopping point along the trade route between Asia and Europe, but also for the rich domestic abundance of spices, teas and even opium. These influences have been significant both on local cuisine and on how European food -especially in Britain - has evolved.

The South is largely costal and the indigenous ingredients differ somewhat from the North. Naturally, seafood is abundant; Coconut is often added to dishes for sweetness or to make sauces creamy; strong smelling curry leaves are used liberally in most of the dishes; fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and coriander seeds are commonplace in South Indian cuisine; cashew nuts are cultivated in the South and black pepper is thought to have originated from the State of Kerala.

I'll write up the recipes over the next few days. I made sure to cook according to the cook book, which is something I don't tend to do, but I thought it was important the first time round to try the dishes as instructed and then try to modify them to my own preferences afterwards. They didn't all go to plan, mind you. I've never ever made bread of any sort before so trying to make savory rice breads called akki roti was an interesting challenge.

I think the dough was too damp and I couldn't roll them as flat as they should have been. Nonetheless, they seemed to be popular with my guinea pigs! http://overnightchef.blogspot.com/2012/01/akki-roti.html

Similarly, the prawn and pumpkin curry recipe instructed adding water which basically made the sauce too watery. http://overnightchef.blogspot.com/2012/01/prawn-and-pumpkin-curry.html

The sardines were pretty tricky to grill without breaking the skin so they don't look as nice as they should. http://overnightchef.blogspot.com/2012/01/shallow-fried-masala-sardines.html

I couldn't find black eyed peas so I used lentils instead for the vegetarian dish, but it still tasted pretty good. http://overnightchef.blogspot.com/2012/01/lentils-with-tomatoes-and-spinach.html

The pork vindaloo was great but I would personally have it much spicer. Not knowing the palates of my guests though, I decided to play it safe. http://overnightchef.blogspot.com/2012/01/pork-vindaloo.html

So all in all I was pretty happy with that as a first attempt and I already know how I'd modify some of the dishes in the future. Stay tuned for the recipes this week!