Madras curry or Madras sauce is a fairly hot curry sauce (with the exception of seafood madras curries, which are made to a slightly different recipe), orange in colour and with heavy use of chili powder. Raita is often used as an accompaniment to the dish.

Origins

Madras curry is said to originate from the south of India, and gets its name from the city of Madras (now Chennai).

Variations

There are many variations on Madras curry and cooking in India is more a domestic practice than a cuisine governed by the conventions of chefs, restaurants, or texts. This curry can be vegetarian or made with meat. Availability of local or locally available ingredients is central to regional Indian foods. The result of the signatures of Madras curries can be achieved through different means; the result often being that of: red colour; toasty spices; the sour-sweet fruitiness of tamarind; a slight liquorice flavour of

anise Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to Eurasia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, such as star anise, fennel, licorice, and ta ...

;

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices ...

; a range of other spices (sweet and savoury and earthy) and the flavours of salt, sweet and sour. The redness is achieved with chilli or a mixture of chilli and

paprika Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from ''Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder an ...

, and the orange of turmeric. Additional sourness may be had from lemon, lime or vinegar. The spices are complementary to the savoury flavours, which may include

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...

and possibly onion or asafoetida. Garam masala,

coriander Coriander (;

, and black peppercorns may also be part of the spice mixture. Chicken madras

Common ingredients may also include fresh curry leaves, and the final addition of fresh coriander. The variations include the roasting of many of the spices including dried chillis, coriander seed, aniseed,

cumin Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

. This can be done in an oven for 10 minutes at 180 °C, or in a frying pan with no oil at low heat. A basic spice mix for Madras curry can be made when these dried roasted ingredients are ground in a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder and mixed with turmeric and stored in readiness for use. Variations are also related to means of storage. The primary spice ingredients can be stored as; roasted dried ground powder; a paste of dried ingredients with vinegar; an oil spice infusion. If meat is used it may be lamb, beef, or chicken. When made of beef it is called Gosht (or Ghoust) Madras.

Accompaniments

Common accompaniments to Madras curry include raita and fresh coriander. The food of southern India is more likely to have rice as the main carbohydrate than any breads e.g. naan. Individual households will express their own traditions. Other common variations will include brown mustard seeds which are fried till they pop, black peppercorns (a local tropical product) and vinegar as the acidulant instead of, or with, the acid fruits.

Production

The dried roasted spices may be cooked in ghee or vegetable oil and then other major fresh ingredients such as garlic and ginger are added with the vegetables and/or meat. The sweet and sour ingredients such as tamarind and lemon juice/vinegar is added later. Finally the fresh coriander is added immediately prior to serving. Other variations may include the use of

cloves Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring or fragrance in consumer products, s ...

, bay leaves,

fenugreek Fenugreek (; ''Trigonella foenum-graecum'') is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiarid crop. Its seeds and leaves are common ingredients ...

and

allspice Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry (botany), berry of ''Pimenta dioica'', a Canopy (forest), midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, ...

References

{{reflist Indian curries Tamil cuisine Spicy foods