Sukhi’s Madras Curry Sauce

Bonnie: With the increased interest in Indian foods in the ‘90s, Sukhi Singh founded the eponymous company — Sukhi’s Authentic Indian Food — and created foods using natural ingredients.

Sukhi’s first product was an Indian paste, similar to the other ones that caught my eye at a food expo where they were exhibited. Her daughter Sanjog spoke to me with beaming pride of her mom’s authentic-tasting products and their family business. She offered to send us samples to evaluate and consider for a Bite of the Best.

It’s so simple to make authentic-tasting Indian foods at home using any one of their home chef collection of curry pastes — a wet blend of spices packed in a see-through envelope. We tried and liked them, with our favorite being this Madras Curry one. It’s a tomato paste-based paste seasoned with a blend of Indian spices that includes chili, ginger, garlic, mustard, lemon grass, mace, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika and cayenne pepper.

Just combine the paste from the packet with chicken or seafood or veggies and water and simmer. The only additional ingredient needed is coconut milk, although I’ve made it without, using a few tablespoons of plain yogurt or a splash of half-and-half with a medium-spicy resulting dish. All Sukhi’s pastes are designed to be medium spicy. If you want it spicier, just add a bit more cayenne. And serve with the Indian bread naan or over rice.

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade has awarded Sukhi’s Authentic Indian Food three sofi awards — “sofi” stands for specialty outstanding food innovation. The award, given twice a year, honors outstanding specialty foods and beverages in 33 categories. Sukhi’s has won three so far: a gold in 2009 for Sukhi’s Samosas & Chutney in the All Natural, Vegan Appetizer category; and a silver for Sukhi’s Lean Fare Chicken Tikka Masala entree in the Diet & Lifestyle category; and a gold in 2008 for her Tikka Curry Masala Sauce (actually a paste like the Madras Curry one) for outstanding cooking sauce.

Bryan: I’d be lying if I said I were a curry expert. In fact, curry is a bit of a new addition to my food repertoire, and something I don’t mind saying I had to investigate. I first had to answer the question, what actually is a curry? There are so many things that seem to be labeled as “curry,” and they all taste so dramatically different. A bit of explanation…

Curry is actually just a generic term, most commonly used in Western cultures to describe a wide variety of spicy, sauced dishes found in South Asian cuisine. There is no one specific ingredient that makes a dish a curry, though there are a few distinct spices that are used in many popular curry dishes: turmeric, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, and red pepper represent just some of the most commonly used. So, at the end of the day, curry (which is taken from the Tamil word kari) basically just means “sauce.” Though many, myself included, may have thought that the term curry referred to “spices,” the spice mixture is actually known as masala. Huh?

It’s easy to see why we might think of curry as spices; it’s generally spicy! We in the West sometimes forget the power of a good spice mixture — we eat very blandly compared to our South Asian peers — and Sukhi’s Madras curry has every bit of punch to it without going too far.

Sukhi’s Gourmet Indian Foods has been producing quality curry sauces since 1992. Though Sukhi puts out a tantalizing selection of flavors, we honed in on her Madras Curry Sauce, a very familiar tasting, lusciously rich blend of coconut milk, mustard seed and red chilies. The Madras sauce is fiery, bringing my simple mixture of shrimp and green beans to an entirely different level. A masterful balance of calm and spice. Sukhi does more than justice to this well-known red curry, named after the city of its origin, Madras (now known as Chennai).

Sukhi turns out a number of other regional tastes. It is truly amazing how dramatically the flavors differ across the vast Asian sub-continent. Vindaloo Curry Sauce, based on a Portuguese dish from the coastal Goa region, is almost delicate, perfectly geared for the local seafood. Kashmir Curry Sauce, on the other hand, originating from the rugged region between India and Pakistan, shows off strong aromas of fennel and ginger, imparting a bold flavor perfect with any meat. One of the most recognizable curry flavors to Westerners, Tikka Masala, actually originated at Indian restaurants in England. Sukhi’s version perfectly captures the essence of this creamy tomato gravy, also known as “Butter Chicken.” Then there is Korma Curry Sauce, a completely different spice palate originating with Persia’s Mughal Empire, which controlled much of India during the 1700’s. Sukhi’s recipe includes cashew nuts, ginger, garlic, poppy seeds, lemon grass and kafir lime peel. Such a dramatic departure from the other flavors…

So, what is a curry? Well, I know this much; if it’s Sukhi’s, it’s a good sauce.

Eric: Indian spices are not, primarily, a driving force behind many of the dishes created in my kitchen. Instead of reaching for the cumin, coriander and turmeric, most of the time I vie for the traditional route of salt, pepper and paprika. The reason I don’t reach for the traditional Indian spices is that, like most people, I am not supremely confident in my ability to make a “traditional” curry sauce. I use the term traditional hesitantly after having read my brothers illustrative history of the term “curry.”

There are many dishes (including sauces) that I feel competent preparing, and I will always be an advocate for doing so — pasta sauce, stir-fry, gravy, etc). Indian curry sauces, however, happens to be the one genre that, for me, never turns out as tasty as the prepared versions.