Currying Flavour!

We have a wealth of greens in Indian cuisine, but June is not the best month for them. In India, June brings the monsoons, and greens are traditionally limited or nonexistent on the plate. But then I remembered a green leaf that is a year-round staple: the aromatic curry leaf, the unsung hero of the Indian kitchen.

It’s not surprising that curry leaves, native to the Indian subcontinent, are intrinsic to many regional Indian cuisines. Either fresh or dried, these leaves are usually the first ingredient added to any dish, and their fragrance and flavour are unmistakable. In fact, most homes, even in the city, boast a curry-leaf plant, and the aroma of the leaves spluttering in hot oil fills Indian homes every time a dal is tempered.

I have been fascinated by the flavour of curry leaves for a long time, but I have also felt that it’s always a part of the dish, never the whole. Indian cuisine does not harness the full potential of these aromatic leaves!

Nature has created a beautiful thing in the curry leaf. It is the perfect shade of green (not too light and not too dark), attractive in shape (with the tiniest little curve at its tip to make it less than perfect) and has the most enticing aroma known to mankind. So perfect is it that just a handful of leaves can dress up the most mundane dish – but give it free rein in a dish and it truly comes into its own!

Despite prolific availability, curry leaves are barely used beyond the tadka, or tempering. The only recipes that exploit the flavour of curry leaves in actual dishes by themselves are found in South Indian cuisines. According to K. T. Achaya, the eminent Indian-food historian, the earliest mentions of the curry leaf are to be found in Tamil writings dating back to the 1st century AD. In fact, the mainstream Hindi word for curry leaf is derived from the Tamil word kari, which means “spicy sauce.” So, while the rest of India probably learned about curry leaves from the Tamils, they only learned to use it for tempering, not for the other hauntingly delicious dishes that use curry leaves as the main ingredient. 

Not content with research alone for this story, I went out and bought some curry leaves to play with. If, like me, you are one of those individuals who can murder even cacti and depend on outside sources for your curry leaves, I recommend that you look for sprigs with fresh, shiny leaves that show no signs of yellowing or wilting. Buy complete sprigs, and keep the leaves on the stems until needed. They will last, refrigerated and wrapped in newspaper, for up to two weeks. I have also found (when I lived in the north of India, where curry leaves were at a premium) that they freeze well.
 
But not everyone likes whole curry leaves in the mouth. (We can be identified by the piles of debris on the edges of our plates!) I love the flavour, so I add whole sprigs to cooking dishes and fish them out before serving. After a little experimentation, I discovered that the flavour is even better when the leaves are ground. I either blend them with ginger, garlic or green chilies (if my dish calls for those ingredients) or a few spoons of water and then add the resulting puree to dishes at the beginning.

I began with a favourite weeknight dinner to gain inspiration. The simple meal consists of rassam, a clear, souplike dish made of lentils and tempered with curry leaves that is eaten with steamed rice and a pan-fried chicken dish innovatively called “chicken fry.” So there I stood, all set to temper my rassam, adding spices in their usual order: asafeotida, fenugreek seeds, sliced garlic, dried red chilies, curry leaves... and then a thought struck me! Perhaps the same tempering would taste really good with chicken as well. Fingers crossed, I added the pieces of chicken that I was marinating for the chicken fry to the tempering, instead of cooked tur dal, and stir-fried them and – viola! – an absolute success! It has since become a regular on the menu and works well with a number of ingredients: large chunks of parboiled cauliflower, chunks of paneer-fried tofu and even Brussels sprouts!    

The rassam set me off on another soup idea. I made a good chicken stock (by all means cheat and use a cube) and then, using a little of this cooled stock, I pureed a cupful of fresh curry leaves stir-fried in oil. I returned the stock to the flame, brought it to a rolling boil, added the curry-leaf puree and allowed it to cook for a few minutes. Then I thickened it with a little corn flour and served it topped with crisp fried onions and a drizzle of chili oil. The pureed curry leaves gave me yet another great idea: a curry-leaf pesto!

Taking a leaf (no pun intended) from Tamil cuisine (it was elementary) in which curry leaves pair beautifully with tomatoes, I combined the curry leaf with the concentrated flavours of sun-dried tomatoes! I combined dry fried curry leaves, sun-dried tomatoes, a little raw garlic and some dried chilies with toasted sesame oil. The resulting paste worked beautifully not only with pasta (and especially well with vermicelli and wheat pasta) but also as a tapenade over bruschetta and a rub for fish fillets, chicken breasts and paneer kebabs prior to grilling. I even developed a dry version to season popcorn!

The true versatility of the flavour of the curry leaf came through, however, with the dessert.  Yes, you read right – dessert. South Indian cooking is testament to the fact that curry leaf pairs really well with coconut, so, when my coconut seller delivered a couple of coconuts with really tender flesh, I decided to play around with the combination. I sliced the tender coconut flesh into half-inch-thick strips, dredged them through a mixture of powdered sugar and dry-roasted curry leaves and skewered them with toothpicks. Served chilled, they made the perfect sweet finale to a spicy and fragrant meal.

Curry-Leaf Pesto Recipe

Curry-Leaf Popcorn Recipe