Curries

Curry

A variety of vegetable curries from India
Region or state	Indian subcontinent, spread worldwide
Main ingredients	Spices, herbs, usually fresh or dried hot peppers/chillies

Curry (/ˈkʌri/, plural curries) is a dish originating in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent. The common feature is the use of complex combinations of spices or herbs, usually including fresh or dried hot chillies. The use of the term is generally limited to dishes prepared in a sauce. Curry dishes prepared in the southern states of India may be spiced with leaves from the curry tree.

There are many varieties of dishes called 'curries'. For example, in original traditional cuisines, the precise selection of spices for each dish is a matter of national or regional cultural tradition, religious practice, and, to some extent, family preference. Such dishes are called by specific names that refer to their ingredients, spicing, and cooking methods. Traditionally, spices are used both whole and ground; cooked or raw; and they may be added at different times during the cooking process to produce different results. The main spices found in most curry powders of the Indian subcontinent are coriander, cumin, and turmeric; a wide range of additional spices may be included depending on the geographic region and the foods being included (fish, lentils, red or white meat, rice, and vegetables).Curry powder, a commercially prepared mixture of spices, is largely a Western creation, dating to the 18th century. Such mixtures are commonly thought to have first been prepared by Indian merchants for sale to members of the British Colonial government and army returning to Britain.

Dishes called 'curry' may contain fish, meat, poultry, or shellfish, either alone or in combination with vegetables. Additionally, many instead are entirely vegetarian, eaten especially among those who hold ethical or religious proscriptions against eating meat or seafood.

Curries may be either 'dry' or 'wet'. Dry curries are cooked with very little liquid which is allowed to evaporate, leaving the other ingredients coated with the spice mixture. Wet curries contain significant amounts of sauce or gravy based on yoghurt, cream, coconut milk, coconut cream, legume purée, or broth.

Curry was adopted and anglicised from the Tamil word kari meaning "sauce", which is usually understood to mean vegetables and/or meat cooked with spices with or without a gravy.Cury (from French cuire, meaning to cook) appeared in the 1390s in an English cookbook, The Forme of Cury, and kari was first described in a mid-17th Century Portuguese cookbook by members of the British East India Company trading with Tamil (Indian) merchants along the Coromandel Coast of southeast India, becoming known as a "spice blend used for making kari dishes ... called kari podi or curry powder". The first curry recipe in English was published in 1747 by Hannah Glasse.