The Food Maven Diary
[Archives]

[Previous Entry] [Diary Home] [Next Entry]

05/22/2000 Archived Entry: "Curry Leaves and Thai Basil"

As you may have noticed, I took a slide again: I haven’t put up anything new in the diary for nearly two weeks. It’s not that I haven’t been working, though. Or been cooking or eating. Today I realized that what I should be doing to make less work for Arthur but more diary items for you is to simply put up questions and answers that I get every day. Yes, I discourage e-mail questions, but I still get them. And, of course, I do answer some good questions on the radio. Let’s see if I follow through with my new resolve to service this diary more frequently.

Without further delay, here’s a good question:

Antonia Ackerman writes:

In this morning's Newsday there is a recipe for "Cumin and Chile Flank Steak," which uses "sprigs of curry leaves". I thought that "curry" was a powder made from a selection of ingredients. The article also says "cooks can use Thai basil instead if they can't find curry leaves". What is Thai basil? And have you heard of "curry leaves"?

Yes, Antonia, there is such a thing as curry leaves. They shrub the come from grows wild at the foot of the Himalayas and is a common garden plant in India. They are used extensively in Indian cooking and have the aroma of the more familiar spice blend that we call curry, which probably derives its name from the plant, a name given by the English to the spice blend when they occupied India. Don't bother with dried curry leaves. They have very little flavor. Frozen curry leaves, however, should be available in a well-stocked Indian market.

Thai basil is a small-leaved variety of sweet basil that has a licorice or anise note. You should be able to find it --fresh -- in Asian produce markets. If you can’t, substitute any basil.