Listen to the Rain

A wild curry post appears!

This doesn't herald a change in schedule or anything, it's just that we're going out to dinner tomorrow and my WFRP game is on Monday, then I have anime chat on Tuesday, then book group chat on Wednesday, so I didn't want to crowd things too much, so you all are getting a curry post today. It'll also be the last Fifty Weeks, Fifty Curries post for a while--schoolpsychnerd and I are going to Oregon next weekend for two weeks, and we're obviously not going to be in a position to make curry while we're gone. Then, when we get back, we'll start the vegetarian curries, the last stretch of the road to the end.

I admit that might be a bit difficult for me to write about. My diet is pretty carnivorous, and it will be hard to focus on what I'd normally think of as a side dish as being the main part of the meal, in much the same way that my initial response to a dry curry is to just dismiss it out of hand. I've come this far, though, and I'll do my best.



This curry was sublime. schoolpsychnerd can probably tell you how I looked after I took the first bite, but I was expecting a yogurty taste since this was pitched to me as a yogurt curry. And it is a yogurt curry--you can see the giant tub of yogurt there--but it had a mouth feel a lot more like butter chicken than anything else. It didn't taste buttery, though, but it didn't taste yogurty either. It was a kind of rich, spicy, sour-sweet taste that complemented the cod and the tomato perfectly. Every few bites, there'd be a further burst of sweetness as I found and bit into a raisin.

It was the best curry I've had out of 50 Great Curries of India in a long time, and a great way to send off the fish curries.



Words from the Chef

This curry had tons of spices and used up a good chunk of what we had, which is probably a good thing. Ingredient wise it was pretty basic, but the sheer amount of spices made me excited. This curry had great depth of flavor for relatively little effort on my part. One of the hardest things for me about making a lot of these curries has been giving them time and letting them simmer/let the onions get really brown. This curry involved a lot of "add these things than go away for 10 minutes and let them cook properly". I knew the moment I smelled this curry that it was going to be good. I plan on making this regularly! It's not as bright yellow as the picture in the book, but it is a pleasant orange color that reminded me a lot of the butter chicken I used to get at Spicy Bar Lal's. It even had a similar buttery texture with no butter at all. I have no idea how it did that but hey, who am I to argue with success?

schoolpsychnerd told me about all the spices that went into this and I was a bit worried that it was going to turn out like fish molee, but it was completely the opposite of that. Fish molee had no taste at all and doi maach with overflowing with deliciousness in every single bite. Doi maach does have a different mix of spices from fish molee and Goa fish curry, with mustard seeds, fenugreek, plus some spices that the other curries had, though not the in same proportions. I still don't know why fish molee had no flavor, and unless we make it again, I suspect I might never know.

Doi maach had enough flavor to make up for a dozen dish molees, though. This is another curry that just specifies fish, and now I want to see what it would taste like with something other than cod. Who needs to try Goa fish curry with salmon or fatty tuna? We should save that fish and use it here.



50 Great Curries of India barely has anything to say about this curry, which is kind of sad. It's literally two sentences, basically "This curry is from Bengal. Fish and yogurt are cooked together only there." Who made this heavenly curry? Who decided on the mix of spices? How will I ever find them to pump their brain for other recipes? I guess I am doomed to disappointment.

But not while eating this curry, because it's amazing.


Would I Eat It Again?: I was half-tempted to eat the rest of the pot.
Do I Prefer It to the Usual Thai Curry?: I think I do! This has a richer taste and I would happy to have it every week.
What Would I Change?: About the curry, nothing whatsoever. I might want to try it with a fragrant rice instead of the bread and broccoli we had it with and see how that goes.