{"id":117,"date":"2012-02-23T12:14:33","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T10:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.radioislam.org.za\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/23\/useful-hints-and-tips-when-making\/"},"modified":"2012-02-23T12:14:33","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T10:14:33","slug":"useful-hints-and-tips-when-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/useful-hints-and-tips-when-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Useful hints and tips when making"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

There is a prevalent misconception amongst non-Indians that curry is an ingredient used in curries, whereas in fact the curry, or the more correct term, TARKARI, is the dish eaten with rotis or rice dishes.<\/p>\n

The basis of all good curries is the onion fried in ghee\/oil and on this depends the attractiveness and palatability of the dish.<\/p>\n

The onions are usually sliced fine and fried in ghee\/oil and on this depends the attractiveness and palatability of the dish.<\/p>\n

The onions are usually sliced fine in ghee\/oil. Just as they change to a golden colour, the meat or vegetable and spices are added –except gharam masala, which is added with the garnishing just before serving.<\/p>\n

If the onion is fried too light there will be an oniony taste to the curry, if they be allowed to turn dark the colour of the curry will be ruined.<\/p>\n

Whilst the onions are being fried the meat and vegetables should be cut, cleaned, washed and drained, and the spices added to them.<\/p>\n

Meat especially, should be allowed to marinate in the spices for some time.<\/p>\n

Tuj, elachi, cloves etc are optional, but they do enhance the exotic flavours which all good cooks aim at in Indian cooking.<\/p>\n

Tomatoes in curries have often been given cup measurements since sizes vary so much.<\/p>\n

It is advisable to pulverize the tomatoes in a liquidizer to avoid loose skins which many people detest.<\/p>\n

Broad, flat-bottom pots are best for curries. Heavy stainless steel aluminium pots or heavy base enameled ones are excellent.<\/p>\n

When adding chilies in your curry try to be moderate especially when you have kids and older people that cannot tolerate to strong food.<\/p>\n

Some brands of red chilly powders are tinted artificially and this makes the curry unattractive, so, for those people who use chilly powder we would like to add a note of caution, that they carefully select a brand that does not use artificial coloring or the Sudan red dye.<\/p>\n

When it comes to using spices in your curries, use them sparingly.
Resist the temptation to put in a bit more for it will not improve the taste, it is harmful and it will spoil the appearance of your food.<\/p>\n

Remember that some spices are for coloring, some for tenderising, and some for flavouring.<\/p>\n

It is rather useful to find out the qualities of each and use to improve the inherent flavours, not smother them.<\/p>\n

Some of the spices that are normally used in our everyday cooking are:<\/p>\n

DHANIA- CORAINDER: This ingredient is used in all its stages.<\/p>\n

Dhunia – fresh coriander leaves are used for garnishing or in mince and savouries. Pounded dhunia leaves are important for some types of chutneys.<\/p>\n

Dry dhunia seeds are used coarsely crushed for some types of savouries and meat dishes. Dhunia is a finely powdered spice.<\/p>\n

Often recipes call for garnishing a hot curry dish with dhunia just before serving. To ensure that you always have this, why not store chopped dhunia in you freezer as follows.<\/p>\n

Wash dhunia. Using leaves and tender stems, chop on board than place in ice-cube trays with a thin layer of water. When frozen store in freezer bags or plastic containers in freezer. Just before serving break off portions as needed from freezer and put into hot curry.<\/p>\n

Storing fresh dhunia in your fridge:<\/p>\n

Wash and clean bunches to get rid of all brown or defective leaves.
Wash and drain dry. Spread out on kitchen paper and pat dry. Place loosely in airtight container. In the fridge they will keep fresh for over a week.<\/p>\n

ELACHI- CARDOMOM, CLOVES, CINNAMON STICKS, AND WHOLE PEPPER CORNS.
These are used in curries and in rice dishes and they add flavor to various dishes. When plentiful and cheap it is advisable to buy and store and these spices can be kept for years and years if stored well.<\/p>\n

JEERO OR JEERA:
This is whole cumin seeds obtainable in all grocery stores. Whenever jeero is mentioned the seeds must be used whole. Coarsely crushed jeera means that and not the powdered form.<\/p>\n

ARAD – TURMERIC:
Arad or haldi or turmeric powder is a coloring with strong preservative quality and should be used carefully. It is used to tint your curries the required shade and lavish use must be avoided in order to prevent garish coloration.<\/p>\n

GINGER\/GARLIC MASALA:
For every 400g of fresh root ginger, use 200g of fresh garlic.
Carefully scrape, clean and wash the 2 ingredients and drain off moisture. Grind through mincer twice and store in bottles in fridge for use as required.<\/p>\n

With the addition of a little salt, ginger\/garlic compound can be stored for a long time.
A good idea is to buy ginger\/garlic when they are cheap and plentiful and to make your ginger\/garlic masala and store it in your freezer.
And I must admit that ginger\/garlic freezers very well.
Besides its distinguished flavour, it is also a wonderful tenderizer and for tougher cuts of meat use a little more than specified in recipes.
Mince and vegetables calls for lesser amounts whilst fish dishes taste better when only garlic is used.<\/p>\n

GHEE:
This is clarified butter or margarine. Butter is put to boil and when it is crystal clear, the scum is drained off through a muslin cloth.
The ghee is stored in tins or enamel bins.
Indian housewives store as much as 6 months to a years quantity at a time. Ghee keeps indefinitely. Many Indian grocers stock ghee.
Ghee can be dispensed with in curries and sunflower oil only used if desired. In desserts we recommend oil that ghee be used as indicated in recipes.
Ghee\/oil will be used by most housewives in proportions to suite individual tastes. It is recommended oil only in meat and vegetable dishes. In poultry and beef, ghee definitely makes a difference. Rice, of course, calls for pure ghee only.<\/p>\n

—
Ammarah
Radio Islam
+27118547022
ammarah@radioislam.co.za
www.radioislam.co.za<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a prevalent misconception amongst non-Indians that curry is an ingredient used in curries, whereas in fact the curry, or the more correct term, TARKARI, is the dish eaten with rotis or rice dishes. The basis of all good curries is the onion fried in ghee\/oil and on this depends the attractiveness and palatability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[252,328,362],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen-tips","tag-handy-hints","tag-kitchen-tips","tag-useful-hints-and-tips-when-making"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hints-and-tips.png?fit=400%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-1T","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 23:55:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}