Chefs increasingly are turning to a repertory of spices that is commonly found in Indian cooking. While some are simply dipping into tins of curry powder, others are starting from scratch, toasting and grinding whole spices. At the same time, other touches of the subcontinent, like chutneys, naan, basmati rice and samosas also are showing up.
It has taken a long time for the flavors and techniques of Indian cooking to seep out of traditional Indian restaurants and into a wider variety of establishments. But some practitioners of the Indian-fusion style, like Floyd Cardoz of Tabla in New York, have helped nudge this trend along.
Generally, the Indian elements are being used simply to create robust flavors, rather than to replicate authentic Indian dishes.
Curry, one of the most popular and recognizable Indian spices, has a mildly spicy, somewhat musty and pungent flavor that adds a whiff of the exotic whenever it shows up.
Knife & Fork in New York offers curry-dusted skate with fennel, microgreen salad and rose hip-coconut emulsion. On the same menu, the chef offers licorice-rubbed venison with caramelized parsnips, parsnip purée, orchid salad and green curry. Terra in San Diego serves panroasted sea bass tipi tapa with macadamia, mango and curried carrot purées.
Six months ago, Home in San Francisco served a summer curry of prawns, vegetables and green lentils with crispy pappadams and yogurt. Bistro 45 in Pasadena Calif., plates a crépinette barramundi with shellfish mousse, curried fennel ratatouille and balsamic brown butter for another global survey in a single dish.
Even steakhouses, such as the new STK in New York, sometimes incorporate Indian flavors. STK combines Taylor Bay scallops with peas, curry and chervil as well as roasted beets with coriander, micro mint, yogurt and curry. Curry has even found its way into salad dressing at Sparrow in San Francisco, where a crispy calamari and Asian slaw salad is dressed with a lemon-curry vinaigrette.
But use of the spice is not limited to upscale operations. At the Pain Quotidien chain—which has stores in New York, Los Angeles and in Europe and the Middle East—there is an open-faced sandwich of curry chicken salad with cranberry chutney.
Many menus specify Madras curry as the spice of choice, such as at Ora in Mill Valley, Calif., where Madras curry-spiced Colorado lamb chops come with couscous, green onions, Japanese eggplant and yogurt sauce. At Eleven Madison Park in New York, a salad of crab is dressed up with green vegetables identified as “legumes verts,” and Madras curry. And at Le Cirque in New York, baby goat shoulder braised with dried apricots and onions is seasoned with Madras curry and served with jasmine rice.
At the Sterling Inn in New Rochelle, N.Y., chef Sterling Smith’s signature dish is slow-poached lobster scented with Indian spices and served with orange blossom gelée and a light autumn borscht.
“I make a blend, like a homemade curry,” Smith says. “I use 10 or 15 different spices, like turmeric, fenugreek, cumin, cardamom, ginger, and white and black pepper, and toast them off then grind them fresh. I’ve had a very good response from customers.”
At Varietal, new in New York, a curry seasoning has also made its way onto the dessert menu, with fenugreek toffee and cocoa nib, yogurt, cherrywood ice cream in a composition called a celery root abstract. As Smith points out, fenugreek is a component of curry mixtures. It has a hint of celery, making it an educated choice to season a celery root dish.