I am an avid curry lover specially mutton curry. Being born in kayashta family, curry is essential for our meals. My grandmother was a fantastic cook, helped my dad (yeah he is a great cook when it comes to cooking mutton) and me learn cooking great curries. My grandfather had spent most of his life in the company of muslim family where they call curry – “salan”. Our cooking is very much influenced from them, especially when it comes to non-veg cooking. It is also believed that during Mughal era, muslim cooks or khansamas loved kayashta people for the very simple reason that they were avid meat lovers and never hesitated eating and tasting food from muslim cooks. If you look at history, kayashta food is very much inspired from muslim cooking and that’s also one of the reason that most of the kayashta people love eating meat rather than chicken.Curry is inspired from tamil word kari which meats sauce. It essentially originated in india and then traveled to the entire south asia and then to the rest of the word. Even in England, curry is a national dish which has more than 300 dishes from India, Sri lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. "What had been an Indian sauce to go with rice, became an English stew with a little rice in it," according to Alan Davidson.( http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/0/24432750). Curry can be cooked with anything – be it mutton, chicken, seafoods, vegetables, lentils, dairy products. It is also called korma and stew in some parts of india. Below are some more links on the story of curry that you may enjoy reading. http://www.menumagazine.co.uk/book/curryhistory.htmlhttp://www.indepthinfo.com/curry/history.shtmlLet’s discuss on some of the famous curries from India. I would love to hear from all of you on your favorite curry. Here is list of my favorite curry from all over India. It’s not chosen based on geographical area and it is purely my personal choice.Kosha Mangsho – it has to be my most favorite mutton dish for multiple reasons. I have grown up enjoying this dish in company of my Bengali friends and now being married to Bengali – I relish this dish even more! I love the thick, spicy and like my mutton little soft. And my favorite place in Delhi to enjoy kosha mangsho, apart from home (my wife makes best kosha mangsho) is City of Joy, AlaknandaRogan Josh - originally Persian dish, now considered as the dish of Kashmir. It consists of lamb/goat primarily in clarified butter and they use the specific Kashmiri chilli which gives it the color as well as aroma. My favourtie place to get authentic rogan josh is Chore Bizzare, Hotel Broadway, Daryaganj and Ahad Sons, Uday Park(only take away).Kolhapuri mutton curry is a spicy mutton curry also known as Matnacha rassa which is served with white gravy made out of bone stock. I do not know if we get this in Delhi, but whenever you travel to pune/Mumbai you must try it out.Rajasthani Laal Maas – as the name suggests it’s red mutton curry and if you ”google” about the origin of it, you will be surprised to know that in past, local banjaras (nomads)’s who actually invented the dish used to use goat blood in it and that’s why the name “laal.” I love Laal maas at “Charcoal” at Safdurjung Enclave.Junglee Maas - as the name says, it was also invented by hunters and is now considered as one the delicacy in Rajasthan. Cooked twice,it is incredibly tender meat, super-hot and spicy too and red chilli is generously used. This is a dry dish. They cook it first and keep it aside then based on order, it is sautéed with ghee(clarified butter) and then served. I am not aware if we have any place that serves Junglee Maas in Delhi.I would love to know about your favorite curry too!
