CURRY CALAMITY

I did not always know how to cook. When I married my Peace Corps Volunteer husband in a ten-minute ceremony in Kenya, East Africa, I did not know how to boil a potato. Fortunately, I was able to read and follow directions and with the help of Fannie Farmer's cookbook I managed to produce edible meals–spaghetti, meat loaf, beef stew.

More interesting things began to develop, however, when I ventured away from Fannie Farmer into the unknown realms of Indian cuisine. Many Indians reside in Kenya, and on several occasions I had the opportunity to eat curry with them, usually chicken or beef. Curry was a strange and exotic flavor to me, being from meat-and-potato Holland, but also being a lover of things adventurous, I embraced this new culinary experience with enthusiasm. Curry was different. It was hot. It was spicy. It brought tears to your eyes. It was magic!

Then one day in town, in Nyeri, I discovered a can of curry powder on a grocery-store shelf. Although imported from England, it proclaimed itself to be an authentic Indian product. It was very yellow, which should have been a warning, but what did I know? I hurried home full of excitement. I could now make my own beef curry. Having mastered the art of making a half-way decent beef stew, I was confident that all I needed to do to make beef curry was to add the missing ingredient: curry powder.

That very afternoon I set to work in my kitchen, a tiny shed built on as an afterthought to our ramshackle little house with its lovely lemon tree in front.

Fannie Farmer in hand, I produced the stew, and then carefully measured a teaspoon of yellow curry powder into it and stirred. I tasted the result.

Nothing.

I stirred in increasingly greater amounts, becoming more and more desperate when the stew turned a sickly greenish-yellow without tasting like anything resembling beef curry.

It was something else. Something altogether unique. However, when the famous gourmet Anthelme Brillat-Savarin stated that the discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of the human race than the discovery of a star, this was not the dish he had in mind.

To tell you the painful and embarrassing truth, it was revolting.

However, the ravaged stew was the only food available for dinner that night and my man ate it. But then, he loved me.
The next day I went to the Indian grocery store and asked the owner what magic was needed to make a good curry. He gave me a pitying look, as if he had no hope for me in the curry department. He said to come back the next day and his wife would give me the spices.

Spices? Plural?

Intrigued, I returned the next morning. Swathed in a colorful sari, a diamond in her nose and a lovely smile on her face, the owner's wife gave me a lengthy explanation of the secrets of making a 'simple' beef curry. It wasn't quite like Fannie Farmer's stew. She handed me an assortment of individually wrapped, freshly ground spices. It was a moment of great discovery:

Curry is not a spice.

Not one to let ignorance defeat me, I set out further along the path of culinary knowledge, cheered on by my food-loving husband. This was a good thing, since I was destined to have three children, many guests, and a long career in the kitchen.

And one day I may create a dish that will change the world.

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Curry refers to an entire category of dishes, rather than to a single spice or mixture of spices. Needless to say, there is no recipe for beef curry that is set in stone, as there is no set recipe for spaghetti sauce or beef stew. Every woman worth her spices has created her own or learned the secrets from her mother or grandmother.

Here then is my (borrowed) recipe for a simple beef curry.

BEEF (OR LAMB) CURRY
(4 - 6 servings)

2 tablespoons butter or ghee (clarified butter)
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2-3 teaspoons red pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or use a generous cup of drained, canned Italian tomatoes.
2 pounds stew beef (or lamb), in 1-inch cubes
2 ½ cups boiling water
1 teaspoon garam massala
Fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

1. Heat the butter (or ghee) in a Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid and saute the chopped onion for a few minutes on high heat until it just begins to turn light golden.
2. Lower the heat slightly, add the minced garlic and ginger and saute about two minutes longer. Do not allow garlic to burn.
3. Add all the dry spices and the chopped tomatoes and saute for another minute or so until the fragrance of the spices comes out. Add the 2 ½ cups of boiling water, then the cubes of meat. Simmer on low heat for 2 hours (about 1 hour for lamb) until the meat is fork-tender and the sauce has thickened.
4. Transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle with the garam massala and garnish cilantro leaves. Serve with rice and chutney of your choice.

NOTE:
Now if you really want to impress your guests, you serve this curry like they do in restaurants in Kenya, with as many side dishes of chopped fruits, nuts, and vegetables as you can think of, which you then pile on top of the curry. The result is a feast of color and utterly delicious.

Here are some of the foods you can use, diced where necessary:
Tomatoes, red onion, green onion, hot chillies, cucumber, green or red sweet pepper, mangoes, peaches, bananas, peanuts, raisins, coconut.

Have on hand some thick, plain yogurt or clabbered milk, which cools the mouth and enhances the flavor of the curry, and enjoy.