O N T H E C U RR Y T R A IL R A G H AV A N IYE R ON THE CURRY TRAIL Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World RAGHAVAN IYER Author of 660 CURRIES — IN 50 RECIPES — $30.00 US/$38.00 CAN ISBN 978-1-5235-1121-1 Transporting readers from curry’s origins in India to its influence on food cultures around the world, On the Curry Trail is a fascinating and lively cookbook filled with history, lore, anecdotes, and beautiful illustrations. Its 50 recipes of pure comfort food—from Nepal to Nigeria, the American South to Fiji—are irresistible, simplified for home kitchens and local markets, and designed to deliver scintillating flavor. WORKMAN PUBLISHING NEW YORK WORKMAN.COM PRINTED IN SOUTH KOREA RAGHAVAN IYER is the winner of an IACP Award for Teacher of the Year as well as a James Beard Award and an Emmy. He is the author of Indian Cooking Unfolded, 660 Curries, and the James Beard Award finalist The Turmeric Trail: Recipes and Memories from an Indian Childhood. Born in Mumbai, Mr. Iyer lives with his family in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Raghavan Iyer’s love letter to the world’s most beloved comfort food reveals a simple recipe for universal happiness: Explore together the many culinary cultures of curry, savor the differences, then share the love at the dinner table.” —AMY TAN , author of The Joy Luck Club “This charming, informative book is an invitation to explore the curry diaspora in all its amazing variety. Recipes, stories, and generous background information, along with lively illustrations, come together to give a picture of the way curry has taken root in the cooking traditions of many parts of the world, from Guyana, England, and Japan to South Africa, Portugal, and Malaysia.” —NAOMI DUGUID , James Beard Award–winning author of Taste of Persia and The Miracle of Salt “Raghavan Iyer remains the most lucid, wittiest, and best-informed writer about Indian cooking we have. On the Curry Trail is engrossing at every level.” —SCOTT TUROW , author of Presumed Innocent and Suspect “One paragraph of On the Curry Trail and I was stepping into a saga. Raghavan Iyer is one of those rare consummate cooks, researchers, and storytellers. Curry is his passion. It shows on the page and on the plate.” —LYNNE ROSSETTO KASPER , author, lecturer, and broadcaster OntheCurryTrail_cvrmech6P.indd 1OntheCurryTrail_cvrmech6P.indd 17/8/22 1:33 PM7/8/22 1:33 PM1 ASIAUndeniably, the South Asian subcontinent is the birthplace of curries, its magical prowess unsheathed with hundreds of spices and flavorings at its disposal. Its cooks roast, pulverize, and perfume a seemingly unending array of stews, stir-fries, rice dishes, and breads—all incorporating flavors that span the spice alphabet from amchur to zafran. No surprise this neck of Asia became the epicenter of the world’s spice trade, tempting merchants, invaders, and colonizers to its shores. With a whopping forty-eight countries in Asia, it is no easy task to identify each country’s desire for a particular array of spices in their culinary repertoire. But the influences of spices, herbs, aromatics, and pastes are deepest felt in the southeast countries of Asia. Like a whirling dervish dancer who spins with dizzying but controlled balance, a cook in Thailand pounds disparate ingredients like lemongrass, lime leaves, fresh galangal, toasted cumin, coriander, and a multicolored array of chilies to fashion a sophisticated and well-nuanced paste with which to punctuate their curries. China’s and Japan’s reliance on the anglicized curry powder, and Sri Lanka’s inclusion of all things related to its native cinnamon, make for many more equally scintillating curries.(recipe continues) Butter Chicken Murgh makhani Serves 4 FOR THE CHICKEN ¼ cup heavy (whipping) cream or half-and-half 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger 5 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, freshly ground 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, freshly ground ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt ¼ teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne) 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts FOR THE SAUCE 1 tablespoon ghee (for homemade, see Variation, page 95) or melted butter (see Tips) ½ cup tomato sauce 2 tablespoons dried fenugreek leaves (see Tips) ½ teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne) ¼ cup heavy (whipping) cream or half-and-half Vegetable cooking spray Naan with ghee, or cooked rice (see page 193), for serving 1 To make the marinade for the chicken, whisk together the cream, ginger, garlic, cilantro, ground coriander and cumin, salt, and ground red pepper in a medium bowl. Add the chicken breasts to the marinade and give it all a good mix, making sure the breasts are well coated. Refrigerate, covered, for at least an hour, preferably overnight. 2 When ready to cook, preheat a gas or charcoal grill, or the broiler, to high. 3 Make the sauce by heating the ghee in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Pour in the tomato sauce, fenugreek leaves, and red pepper. Simmer the sauce, covered, stirring occasionally, to allow the leaves to perfume the sauce, 5 to 8 minutes. Some of the ghee will start to separate from the sauce. 4 Gently pour in the cream, stirring to make a creamy red sauce. Turn off the heat and keep the sauce covered while you cook the chicken. 5 If you are grilling, lightly spray the grill grate with vegetable cooking spray. Grill the chicken over indirect heat, covered, turning occasionally, until the breasts are light brown, 15 to 20 minutes. (To test for doneness, slice into a piece with a paring knife; the meat should no longer be pink and the juices should run clear.) If you are broiling, position a rack so the top of the chicken will be 2 to 3 inches from the heat. Lightly spray the rack of a broiler pan with cooking spray, place the chicken on the pan, and broil, turning occasionally, until the breasts are light brown, the meat is no longer pink inside, and the juices run clear, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the breasts to a cutting board and cut them into 1-inch-wide strips. 22 ON THE CURRY TRAILTIPS Ideally, which fat to use for the sauce? I prefer the clarity of ghee over milk solid– laden butter. Ghee infuses a nutty quality, parallel to none, plus it is considered way better than butter in terms of healthy attributes. And it is free of lactose. Fenugreek, also known as Greek hay (since it was fed to cattle in Greece for its ability to help lactating cows produce more milk), is a very important plant in India, Africa (it was used in the tomb of Tutankhamun), and also parts of Europe. The plant has been around for at least 6,000 years and every part of it can be used culinarily as well as for health reasons. With small clover-like leaves, the plant grows close to the ground and needs to be thoroughly washed before use. Separate the leaves from the stems and dunk them under cool water, swishing them around to allow the dirt to settle to the bottom. Repeat this a few times, changing the water as needed. I characterize the leaves as having a perfumed bitterness, and the seeds, slightly triangular-shaped, are intensely bitter and hard. The seeds are a key inclusion in commercial (and homemade) curry powders; their aroma, almost maple-like, is what gives curry powders that je-ne-sais-quoi quality. Fresh leaves are often used as an herb as well as greens (like you would spinach or mustard greens). When dried, they are labeled as kasoori methi, and it’s in this form that they bring butter chicken to life. If the sauce has no dried fenugreek leaves, it ain’t butter chicken in my book. 6 Add the cooked succulent pieces, including any juices, to the sauce, making sure every piece is coated with that luscious sauce. Turn the heat back on to medium and bring the curry to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally, to allow the chicken to absorb the flavors, about 5 minutes. Serve hot with naan, slathered with ghee, right out of a tandoor. I won’t judge if you buy the naan premade or even serve the curry with rice. 24 ON THE CURRY TRAILTIPS Never buy ground cinnamon, as the oils in it dissipate in aroma and flavor. You are far better off grinding the whole sticks just before use. Fresh curry leaves provide a mild citrusy flavor and intense aroma—find them at Indian groceries and online. Remove the leaves by sliding your fingers down the stem. THE CINNAMON TRAIL This tear-shaped island just south of India has had so much history, topo- graphical variety, internal conflict, and culinary crosspollination crammed into its relatively small size. Sri Lanka’s proximity to India is like a tether that has held the two countries together for thousands of years, bound by religion, strife, colonies, and spices. A mellifluous array of curries marks the distinctive style of Sri Lankan food, a reflection of the Portuguese, Dutch, and English who colonized the island for more than 130 years. And let’s not forget the influence of the Scottish tea growers, Muslims, Malaysians, and Moors. I was fortunate to spend time in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) leading groups on food and cultural tours to the southern half of the country. The northern, northwestern, and coastal eastern regions still felt unsettled after the long civil war that devastated the island between 1983 and 2009, a conflict between the Hindu Tamil Tigers and the Buddhist Sinhalese. I experienced a culinary artist’s tapestry of red, white, and black curries, ranging from mellow coconut meat and milk to assertive dishes with red chilies to those interlaced with spices like coriander, fenugreek, cloves, and cinnamon, darkly toasted and highly intoxicating. Southern Sri Lanka boasts of cultivating true cinnamon. Dr. Darin Gunesekera, a social entrepreneur living in Sri Lanka’s largest city, Colombo, led us to Puhulwella in southern Sri Lanka, home to a cinnamon plantation he runs, which employs women from impoverished neighboring homes and uses only sustainable and ethical practices. I witnessed the harvesting of the cinnamon trees with their pink-hued red leaves, their slender barks stripped and naturally furled as they dried, scenting the space with their sweetness. Later we supped on home-cooked curries, hot sambals, red rice, lacy-edged crepe-like rice hoppers, and noodles, all washed down with coconut water— an experience evoked in this recipe. SRI LANKA ASIA 33Next >