CRUNCHY veggie curry?

[Ekim]

Alton Brown Curry Veggie Recipe

So I'm watching GOOD EATS last night. Alton's making a veggie curry dish. Looks interesting, except he's sauteeing the spices on the recipe, letting them burst and then assembling the rest.

Without crushing or grinding the spices, wouldn't the veggies have large chunks for spices on them?

Is that intentional? Is it edible?

 

[marmalady]

That's pretty common in Indian cooking, to use the whole spices and herbs. And no, they're not eaten; either taken out before serving, or folks know to pick 'em out. It's actually a delicious way to get all the flavor out of an herb or spice.

 

[Yakuta]

The spices he used in the curry would not be fished out at all - mustard seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds. We also use fenugreek seeds and all of them are eaten with the curry without removal and in some cases you cannot even feel them when you eat (we eat our food with a tortilla like bread called roti).

The only spices that would be fished out in his recipe are whole chillies (unless you want to burn your tongue or love potent red peppers ). We also use whole cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black peppers in a lot of our preparations and those would be the spices that you would normally fish out. They do add a lot of flavor but I admit are a pain to fish out especially if you have kids. My kids don't like to see them in the food and complain a lot about them when they are eating so now I grind them instead prior to adding.

 

[marmalady]

Sorry, Yakuta, I didn't click on the recipe itself to see what he was using - my bad! I was thinking more of the whole cardamon and cinnamon sticks that you fish out.

 

[bevkile]

This Question is addressed to Yakuta.

When the recipe calls for cardamom pods, do you leave them in the pod and roast them and grind them pod and all?

 

[Ekim]

Well I though he used star anise. Those are pretty big, at least the one I broke apart in Penzey's this afternoon was!

Thanks for the input.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Well I though he used star anise. Those are pretty big, at least the one I broke apart in Penzey's this afternoon was!

Thanks for the input.

A lot of Indian cookery uses whole spices. Just to take a simple example, you have the Panch Puran mixture used in the east.
Many spices are edible whole; cardamom seeds (with the husks removed), cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, kalonji seeds.
If the spices are inedible ( star anise, whole black cardamom, cassia bark, etc ) you just push them to the side of the plate.
Whole seeds give a wonderful texture to food. If you want another example, stirfry some potato (or sweet potato) with mustard powder.
Do another lot in whole black (or brown) mustard seeds.
NOT the same difference, eh?

One of my favourite dishes is stir-fried(thick-sliced) courgettes with whole cumin seeds. Just the veg, the cumin, salt, ghee and a finely chopped green chilli or two.