Shweta: Curry for Indians is a simple dish but when someone from outside travels, what would be your advice to get the the authentic taste?
The type of chili can change the taste of curry. /CGTN Photo
Sandeep:Most of the time, when foreigners and tourists come here, they are fed with very complex layers of flavors that they are not exposed to. One thing I will tell is to go to the simplest factor of making a curry.
There is a lot of processes and science behind making food. It is not about how well you make it. If you have to tell someone how to make a dish you should be able to tell the actual process of making it.
The traditional methodology is what you go back to and applying your technique to it. That is where it differs from your cooking to your mother's cooking. When you ask your mother… your mother tells you the exact recipe but she doesn't tell you the exact process.
Vegetable, meat or seafood form the base of the curry. /CGTN Photo
I think there is a lot of energy in the way we touch and feel every ingredient. You still want to keep your base flavor intact and build on top of that so that when you eat it will hit your memory somewhere.
I only concentrate on one thing – that is balance. Flavor is subjective but balance is not.
Shweta: I want to ask an impossible question. How many curries are there in India?
Sandeep: It's impossible to say how many types of curries [there are]. In Indian food the more you preserve and more you add on it, it just evolves. You add one spice and everything changes. But a simple curry could be made just with curry leaves, turmeric and salt. It's as simple as that. So I would say wherever you travel in India, stop at small road side eateries run by locals and that is where you will discover senses of taste you thought never existed.
