[JJNJustin]

Hi Katy. I'd be glad to. Many Indian dishes are meat which has been braised (slow cooked in its own juices) in an aromatic sauce mixture. The two main types of sauces are curries and kormas. A curry usually has a tomato based sauce, whereas a korma usually has a yogurt based sauce. Curries tend to be flavored with more pungent spices, whereas kormas tend to be flavored with more mellow spices. Many kormas also have the addition of ground cashews or almonds to make the sauce richer and add another subtle taste dimension.

Curry powder comes from the Hindu word Kari Masala. Kari means hot and masala means mixture. The most basic curry powder combines Cumin Seeds, Coriander Seeds, Turmeric, and dried Red Chilies. You can make you own curry powder by toasting these whole spices in a skillet and then grinding them after they have cooled. Different dishes may have more or less of one of these spices, some add other spices to give it different dimensions, but this is the standard curry powder mix. A famous curry type dish would be Lamb Rogan Josh or Lamb Curry.

Kormas are usually flavored with an altogether different set of spices used to make a spice mix called garam masala. This is a sweet spice mix that contains cardamom, cloves, cinnamom, bay leaves, and nutmeg. Typically the meat is braised in a yogurt creme sauce with these spices. A famous korma dish would be Navratan Korma (mixed vegetables in almond flavored creme sauce)or Shahi Murgh (chicken in delicately flavored creme sauce).

Indian cinnamon and bay leaves are different than American and European Bay leaves. Actually, the genus for the Indian cinnamon tree is cinnamonium, or true cinnamon, whereas the american tree is the Bay Laurel tree. So whereas American bay leaves are true bay leaves, american cinnamon is actually bark from the laurel tree, and whereas Indian cinnamon is true cinnamon, Indian bay leaves are leaves from the cinnamon tree.

Green Cardamon is a very fragrant slightly lemony spice used to flavor rice, kormas, desserts, and beverages. Eaten whole and uncooked it is bitter, but when cooked it is mellow and sweet. It is in the form of green seed pods, and Arabs and Indians commonly put the whole seed pods in Tea or Coffee. The black seeds can be removed from the pods and ground up for flavoring more delicate dishes such as rice pudding or ice cream.

Indian bay leaves are large and add very strong aromas to certain dishes. Used in excess they can make a dish bitter. They dont add much in the way of flavor, but rather aroma.

Saffron is a very expensive spice that colors food yellow. It is commonly used in Spanish Paella, Indian Biryani, Arabic rice pilaf, and in Indian desserts and beverages. It has a subtle flowery type of taste. It is usually used to flavor rice.

Black Cardamom is a larger seed pod that are about the size of a large almond. They have a very fragrant woody taste and aroma and go very well with rich meat dishes.

Tamarind is a fruit that grows on a tree indigenous to the area. The word tamarind comes from the arabic tamur-hindi which means indian date. You can buy it in concentrate at indian and asian grociers. It is very sour but has a date like character.

The food in Southern India tends to not revolve around kormas and curries, as it does in the North. A korma has Persian-Moghul origins. Southern Indian food utilizes the following spices more often and more consistantly: black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, dried red chilies, curry leaves, dried coconut, dried urad dal. Since the India gets narrower in the south, people are closer to the ocean and hence rely more on seafood. Seafood is usually cooked in coconut milk. The region is more tropical and coconut milk and coconut gets used more. Many of the vegetables are cooked in what is called a "dry curry". A dry curry is basically a saute of the ingredients mentioned above. You will see a lot more coconut and curry leaves used in the south.

Indians have like a million kinds of dried lentils and beans. A famous Southern Indian vegetable lentil stew is called Sambhar. Rasam is a hot peppery soup made sour with tamarind.

The one thing I learned when I started cooking Indian food at home was that if you go to an Indian spice market you can obtain all these spices and ingredients for very cheap prices. If you try to fill your spice cabinet with small bottles from Kroger or whatever you will be paying a fortune. A 4oz jar of Mccormicks costs like $5.00 whereas you can get 16oz at an Indian market for $3.00 and the quality is much better.

Yes, I am an Indian food fanatic.

-J