gbpfan1231 Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I have been making a different soup every Sunday. This week the recipe calls for madras Curry paste. Living in Green Bay there is not a good selection of ethinic ingredients and I have been to numerous grocery stores. So far the closest I have found is: Pataks Concentrated Curry Paste Hot - I checked the webiste and they have Madras curry paste but the store only had the concentrated Curry Paste hot Bombay Authentics - Kashmiri Curry paste So my questions: can I substitute either for Madras? If yes which is closest? Is something else closer to Madras? I assume the Thai curry paste is not close - Indian Curry paste is different than Thai? Thanks - hoping to make this later this afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 indian and thai curries are different but both good. i would imagine that a sub of one for the other would not give you a bad result, but it would be different than the "vision" for the recipe. those substitutions look fine. if one is too spicy you can water it down. sorry for the late response, but my visits are sporadic these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbpfan1231 Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 indian and thai curries are different but both good. i would imagine that a sub of one for the other would not give you a bad result, but it would be different than the "vision" for the recipe. those substitutions look fine. if one is too spicy you can water it down. sorry for the late response, but my visits are sporadic these days. Thank you for the response!! I tried two more grocery stores this morning and on the way home drove past this tiny store called India Bazaar - I stopped and it was an indian grocery store - never knew it existed. They had madras curry paste so bought a jar. Now I have three different jars of paste so my house will probably smell like curry for the next few weeks. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 The short answer is, "don't worry about it". Either of those Indian curry pastes will undoubtedly make your dish tasty. Beyond that, bothering to delve into the actual answer of how close either is would mean I'd have to dig out my Indian cooking tomes but, again, would matter only if you were actually serving this soup to an Indian and one who knew their stuff. As far as Thai vs Indian, yes, those are quite different. Different enough that you'd end up with some vastly different (though not necc. bad) Here's the thing about "curry". The word means so many things, it may as well mean nothing. There are so many colors and flavors to curry, there's no point in trying to pretend there's a definitive flavor of curry. In fact, you can't even say it's a complex blend of many spices and herbs because it isn't even that. Sometimes "curry" can be very simple and contain just chiles and one or two spices. Sometimes it's a powder, sometimes it's a paste. You can't even say it's a stew because sometimes it's actually a very dry dish. I realize this is late, just thought I'd throw this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delusions of grandeur Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 The short answer is, "don't worry about it". Either of those Indian curry pastes will undoubtedly make your dish tasty. Beyond that, bothering to delve into the actual answer of how close either is would mean I'd have to dig out my Indian cooking tomes but, again, would matter only if you were actually serving this soup to an Indian and one who knew their stuff. As far as Thai vs Indian, yes, those are quite different. Different enough that you'd end up with some vastly different (though not necc. bad) Here's the thing about "curry". The word means so many things, it may as well mean nothing. There are so many colors and flavors to curry, there's no point in trying to pretend there's a definitive flavor of curry. In fact, you can't even say it's a complex blend of many spices and herbs because it isn't even that. Sometimes "curry" can be very simple and contain just chiles and one or two spices. Sometimes it's a powder, sometimes it's a paste. You can't even say it's a stew because sometimes it's actually a very dry dish. I realize this is late, just thought I'd throw this out. That's because curry is Indian for "my rectum is on fire" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WashingtonD Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 That's because curry is Indian for "my rectum is on fire" Curry is delicious you chives :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbpfan1231 Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 The short answer is, "don't worry about it". Either of those Indian curry pastes will undoubtedly make your dish tasty. Beyond that, bothering to delve into the actual answer of how close either is would mean I'd have to dig out my Indian cooking tomes but, again, would matter only if you were actually serving this soup to an Indian and one who knew their stuff. As far as Thai vs Indian, yes, those are quite different. Different enough that you'd end up with some vastly different (though not necc. bad) Here's the thing about "curry". The word means so many things, it may as well mean nothing. There are so many colors and flavors to curry, there's no point in trying to pretend there's a definitive flavor of curry. In fact, you can't even say it's a complex blend of many spices and herbs because it isn't even that. Sometimes "curry" can be very simple and contain just chiles and one or two spices. Sometimes it's a powder, sometimes it's a paste. You can't even say it's a stew because sometimes it's actually a very dry dish. I realize this is late, just thought I'd throw this out. Thanks for the reply - always good to learn more. I found the specific kind and the soup turned out awesome. Today using up some of the Kashmir paste is a slow cooker curry chicken dish that I hope makes the house smell awesome for days!!!! On a total curry kick lately!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I am currently killing some time in a barnes and noble. There is a book in their bargain bin you might be interested in..... 50 great curries of india... $8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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