Reply to Made Indian food—house and clothes smell like curry now

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[quote=Anonymous]When I was 8 years old we moved into a house that was previously owned by a family of south Asian descent - I never met them but I know that now because the house had a very strong odor of what I know now was typical spice profile of Indian or Pakistani food. We were boring WASPs who barely used salt and pepper on food, maybe the occasional bay leaf. My mother repainted the whole house which pretty much eliminated the odor.

Fast forward 40+ years and I am a halfway decent cook of butter chicken and a few other types of curry dishes, and have to force myself not to make curry every single week. It is up there on the list of foods I would eat on repeat on a desert island if I had to choose only one kind curry would likely be it. The fragrances and flavors are sublime. I go through Indian spices on a regular basis so luckily I have some good sources for high quality low cost spices.

I’m always happy when I walk in my house the day after I’ve made a curry and smell the lingering fragrance. My air filter units (BlueAir, highly recommend the brand) does a great job eliminating after a day or so but I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t. The predominant odor is garlic (I use it in copious amounts) but also the array of colorful spices that stain your clothes if you aren’t careful. I’m happy enough with the stains, too.

I grew up in a family that included too many bigots and I heard endless comments about garlic eaters and curry eaters growing up. My father even excoriated the Portuguese community I grew up around for the flavors in their foods - in retrospect I think my German father and English mother were probably just jealous of people who knew how to cook with flavor. I hardly ever cook the foods I grew up with, some of the dishes were downright disgusting and others I previously liked I have found much less appealing with the maturing of my palate. This weekend I cooked corned beef cabbage and potatoes, using a brisket I had corned myself for the first time. It was a lovely flavor profile compared to the pre corned briskets I’ve purchased in the past, but it’s still a fatty hunk of meat and veggies also end up fatty as they simmer in the same juices. I’m eating leftovers of this dish for the next two nights and can’t wait until my day of Wednesday when I will make my very spicy variation on butter chicken that I have perfected over the last couple of years. And I can’t wait for my home to smell like Indian spices again![/quote]

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