Spices

[onlyMark]

Casi, this is common technique if you eat/cook Indian and many south east Asian foods. It goes by various names and is known as tadka in India and other names in their native lands.
It can be done wet, in oil, or dry and more or less the spices are 'toasted' before being ground.
There is a lot of information about it and a google search on tempering or to bloom spices will turn up a wealth of information.
If I am cooking an Indian meal I have done it, but not always.
The technique is hundreds of years old.

[kerouac2]

All I know is that I have never been able to reproduce at home the magnificent aroma of an Indian restaurant. I suppose that one of the reasons is that I am not preparing 50 different dishes, but there is almost certainly more to it than that.

[casimira]

Thanks Mark. Makes sense and I feel kinda dumb because the name itself should give every indication of what it is all about.
But, it was worth the asking if only to reread some of the posts in here and the recipe for Cheery's curry powder/Masala alone worth the scrolling around for.
And, I learned a new word I can throw around like I know what I'm talking about: tadka.

[cheerypeabrain]

One way to get that 'curry house' aroma I've found is to cook your curry with minced onion. I grate up a couple of big Spanish onions...then cook them really gently for a long while in melted ghee or oil, careful not to let them burn, they get quite gloopy...then I add the minced garlic and ginger ...then my spice mix (I mix the spices with a bit of water to make a paste)...as the onion and spices gently cook down they release a 'sort of almost authentic' smell..imo. I've always thought the the minced onion ..which is semi-liquid...adds a depth to the flavours and smell.

Not that I know what I'm talking about !

[kerouac2]

Even though the guy doing the video is annoying, this really makes me want to return to the spices of South Asia as soon as possible.