THE CURRYNAMA
Though
found in many countries east of the sub-continent, it is hard to deny that the
curry originated on Indian shores
WHO INVENTED CURRY? If you answered,
“India, of course,” then you may well be right. Except that people in other
countries may disagree with you. After all, curry is an Asian dish found in
many countries east of the sub-continent: Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and
Thailand.
The Japanese freely admit that their
curry was inspired by ours. The Malaysians and the Indonesians are slightly
more circumspect, but it is hard to deny that their curries originated on our
shores. Only the Thais present a problem. They claim curry as their own and
argue that their curries – as globally famous as Indian curries, these days –
have nothing to do with ours. They developed independently, they say, and only
the English word ‘curry’ suggests a bogus kinship with our cuisine.
The Thais point to two key
differences between their curries and ours. The first is that they rely on
fresh herbs while our curries depend on dry spices. The second is that an
essential ingredient of their curries is coconut milk. Indian curries, on the
other hand, do not usually use coconut milk but depend on dairy products: Ghee,
dahi, etc.
I asked Ananda Solomon, the only
chef I know who is at much at ease with both Thai and regional Indian food,
what he made of the distinction. Ananda conceded the general point about spices
versus herbs but argued that the Thais also used spices (ground coriander
seeds, etc) and that Indians used fresh leaves like dhaniya, kadi patta. So,
the differences were not as clear-cut as the Thais suggested.
But it was the use of coconut milk
that intrigued me. When the Thais say that Indian curries do not use coconut
milk, they refer to north Indian food. And certainly, it would be bizarre to
use coconut milk in a rogan josh or a korma. But there’s much more to Indian
cuisine than the food of the north. And once you go south of the Vindhyas, the
Thai claim seems shaky.
Coconut is one of the mainstays of
south Indian cuisine. It is used in nearly every form (flesh, oil, etc) all
over the south, and in Kerala and parts of Karnataka, coconut milk is an
essential ingredient in many curries.
In fact, once you compare the food
of Kerala to the food of Thailand, the distinction between Thai curries and
Indian curries is so slender as to be almost meaningless. The coconut milk
curries of Kerala are fragrant, delicate and very different from the curries of
north India.
So, did the Thais get their curries
from south India? It is hard to say but we do know that the coconut appears in
ancient Indian literature long before it turns up anywhere else. According to
Hindu mythology, it was the creation of the sage Vishwamitra and archaeologists
have found fossils all over India (including land-locked Rajasthan) which
suggest that there were coconuts in India long before there were human beings.
The Thai coconut milk curries may be
of more recent origin. They seem to have grown in popularity as recently as the
17th century and one theory (admittedly, not universally accepted) suggests
that it was the Portuguese who encouraged the Thais to put coconut milk in
their curries.
But why would the Portuguese, who
use no coconut milk in their own cuisine, want the Thais to start using it? At
this stage, the theory falters. Well, perhaps, they were missing the richness
I have my own explanation. When the
Portuguese came to Thailand, they did not take a direct flight from Lisbon to
Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. They got to Thailand only as part of their
general exploration of the Indian ocean, for which they used India as a base.
Most Portuguese ships did not have conquistadors manning the stoves. Instead,
they used Indian cooks who they had picked up in Goa and south India.
Could this be the route through
which the coconut milk curry travelled from south India to Thailand? Nobody
knows for sure but it is a plausible enough theory.
All cuisines develope and adapt
after a while. So, while it is true that both south Indians and Thais use
coconut milk, their attitudes to the ingredient are different. In Malayali
cuisine, there are broadly three different strengths of coconut milk, depending
on thickness. The curry is made in the usual Indian way with the masala being
sautéed first and the thinner coconut milk being used as north Indians would
use water in their curries. The thickest coconut milk goes in towards the end
of the cooking process as a thickening agent.
For the Thais, however, the coconut
milk is the point of the curry.
They begin the process by heating it
till the fat begins to separate and floats to the top. Only then, do they add
the curry paste.
According to Ananda, the secret of a
good Thai curry is to let the coconut milk cool down a little before adding the
curry paste/masala.
As much as I love Malayali food,
when I do cook a curry at home, it tends to be the Thai version. It’s not
because Thai curries are necessarily better but because they are so easy to
make as to be virtually idiot-proof. All you need to do is to follow the
instructions on the back of the packet of curry paste.
Here, for instance, is what it says,
in Thai-English, on the packet of massaman curry paste that I usually use:
“Put coconut cream in a heated pan
and add paste. Stir fry until oil appears on top. Add meat and continue stir
fry until done. Fill the rest of the coconut milk. Boil to cook and simmer till
tender. Put potato and cut onion. Add fish sauce, sugar, tamarind and seasoning
as prefer. Leave it to boil until finish.”
Even in Thai-English, it is easy to
follow. There is one obvious drawback in the method, though. Clearly, you are
meant to add the coconut milk in two batches, one before the masala goes in and
one after.
I don’t actually follow any Thai
recipes myself even though I use their pastes. When I make a massaman curry, I
Indianise the recipe and serve it Gujarati-style with papad and kachumber. My
recipe is below.
Of course, it is completely
inauthentic and they would probably cancel my Thai visa if I tried cooking it
in Bangkok. But hey, what the hell!
Curry is our dish, anyway...
VIR SANGHVI HTBR120805
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