Curry

Not a single dish

“Curry” as a category was coined by the British during colonial rule in India. The Tamil word kari (meaning sauce or relish) was generalized to cover hundreds of distinct Indian preparations that share little beyond using spice blends. No Indian language has a native word that maps to “curry” in the English sense — Indian cooking has masala, salan, kuzhambu, jhol, aviyal, gosht, and dozens of other specific dish-types.

Major regional traditions

Each region developed its own family of curry-like dishes:

• North Indian — onion-tomato base, garam masala, ginger-garlic, sometimes cream or yogurt. Examples: butter chicken, korma, rogan josh.
• South Indian — coconut, curry leaves, mustard seeds, tamarind. Examples: sambar, avial, fish moilee.
• Bengali — mustard oil, panch phoron spice mix, fish in mustard sauce.
• Thai — pounded fresh paste of chilies, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, shrimp paste. Cooked with coconut milk. Examples: red, green, massaman, panang.
• Japanese — adapted from British navy curry in the 19th century. Roux-thickened, mild, sweet. Eaten with rice or katsu.
• British — chicken tikka masala (likely invented in Britain), jalfrezi, vindaloo anglicization. Distinct from Indian originals.
• Caribbean — curried goat (Jamaica), Trinidadian curries with local hot peppers.
• Malaysian / Indonesian — rendang (dry, deeply braised), gulai, kari.

What’s actually shared

Despite the diversity, most curry traditions share a few practices:

• A base built from sautéed aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger, often chilies).
• A spice bloom — whole or ground spices fried briefly to release oils.
• A liquid — water, stock, coconut milk, yogurt, or tomato.
• Slow simmering to meld flavors.

Garam masala vs. curry powder

• Garam masala — a North Indian blend of warming spices (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, cumin, coriander). Used as a finishing spice, often added at the end. Each family has its own blend.
• Curry powder — a British invention from the 18th century. A pre-mixed industrial blend of turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, mustard, and sometimes others. Used in British and South African cooking; not a traditional Indian product.