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Current Curry Questions


the_only_colie

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I am quite a novice when it comes to cooking Indian food.

I've made a few curries before but I rely on my Penzy's Sweet Curry powder and their Hot Curry. In the whole 30 book it asks for "yellow curry" and "red curry" as ingredients. However I've never seen curry powder labeled as 'yellow' and 'red' in stores. Are they the same as sweet and hot?

Anyone know alternative names for these or how I would cook those recipes with the Penzey's spices? Or maybe a different brand?

I checked the forum search thingy and couldn't find anyone asking about the curry powder.

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The "red curry" and "yellow curry" (and green and massaman) that Thai recipes call for is a paste. I've made my own, or used Thai Kitchen when I don't want to go that route. Oddly, I can't find the ingredient list on their website, but here's the product:

 

http://www.thaikitchen.com/Products/Sauces-and-Pastes/Red-Curry-Paste

 

Those two curries have a lot of the same ingredients but notably yellow curry has turmeric and spices that we usually associate with sweet things (cinnamon, mace, ginger) and red curry has shrimp paste and red pepper.

 

If you don't want to buy new stuff, try using the sweet powder for yellow and the hot powder for spicy.

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What color is the sweet curry and what color is the hot curry? As far as I've ever noticed from a labeling perspective, the yellow curry looks more goldenrod/yellow-ish and the red curry looks more rust colored. That's for powders. The pastes are much more obvious in their color differences. 

 

Looking at the ingredients lists on the Penzeys website (and what I can see of the pictures), it looks like the Sweet is more yellow and the Hot is more red. 

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I'm relatively novice to cooking Indian food, but one of my family's staples is against all grains Tikka Masala. The last time I made it, I actually noticed she had W30 modifications on there (like if you don't want to make homemade coconut yogurt, you can use baking soda and oil and omit the honey. Tbh I never add the honey even if I'm not on w30. I like it without much more)

As far as other Indian dishes, I'm kinda in a rut with Tikka. I used to work with an Indian family and ate a lot of their food but didn't pick up any recipes. Oops. I do know they added garam masala to everything, including spaghetti sauce (it added sweetness but not sugar). I've never worked with curry pastes out side of Thai cuisine.

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@madness ahh! I have used that Thai red curry paste in the past for a peanut sauce. I totally forgot about that stuff! I'll have to check the recipe when I get home because I think it asks for a powder but I'm sure the paste would be fine. The penzey's ones don't taste like that red paste at all so I guess I'm off to the grocery store~! :)

@laura_jiggles I'll have to check the curry powders when I get home but I remember them being brown? Maybe goldish brown? You're probably right about them being the yellow curry! :)

@karen_suep mmm never had tikka but it sounds good! Thanks for the suggestion! It's always good to have more recipes because we're getting close to finish the official book and seem to be in a flavor rut at the moment. :)

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I cook more Thai curries than Indian ones (although I love Indian and can get all the spices locally).

 

I have seen Thai ones in powder form, but our local Thai community says to avoid those and choose the paste ones as they have to remove some ingredients to make it dry so it doesn't taste the same.

 

My favourite Thai brand is Aroy-D and it comes in a plastic tub with a bag inside full of paste http://www.asiangrocerystore.com.au/aroy-d-red-curry-paste.html

It comes in Red (red tub), Green (green tub), Massaman (blue tub), Panang (purple tub). This brand makes other things which aren't compliant too, so always read the label.

 

For Indian, most of the dairy free ones are Whole30 adaptable, if they have a tomato base like Rogan Josh or a nut "gravy" like a Korma. "Nothern Indian" recipes are less likely to have dairy in them. Ones with cream or yoghurt are adaptable too, but you'll need to do a bit more trial and error and the taste will be a little different.

 

Here's a great one from Mel Joulwan: http://meljoulwan.com/2009/02/11/south-indian-curry/

 

There is a minor cuisine called Fijian Indian, which is Indian made with Fijian ingredients (there's a small population of Indian people in Fiji), their curries are Indian, but are mostly coconut based. We actually have some Fijian Indian restaurants here in Australia :)

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@praxisproject cool! I'll have to check those out! Good to know that the paste is preferred. Fijian Indian sounds so good! I'm a BIG fan of melting pot type foods. The city I live in is a huge melting pot and you find all sorts of interesting and delicious combos like Vietnamese fusion, Mediterranean-fast-food & Mexican-Korean (mmm kimchi burritos....how I wish you were w30 compliant)

Thanks for the new recipe! :D

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