Curry leaves are an important ingredient of Indian cooking. For the past couple of months, I had not been finding curry leaves in the stores from where I usually get them here in the US. This was just one more symptom of the world-wide food scarcity. But a curious Google search revealed that this important ingredient has been totally banned from the US because a pest called Asian citrus psyllids was found in a shipment of curry leaves coming into California from Hawaii!Source: Pest found in curry leaves halts shipments.
Wonder how long we will have to wait until the ban is lifted. Hope it is lifted soon. Many South Indian recipes just don't taste right without curry leaves!
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Are curry leaves the same thing as bay leaves? I find bay leaves a nuissance in my food actually...
ReplyDeleteNo, Zen, curry leaves are different. They are used in most of the South Indian dishes. We use bay leaves for special recipes like biriyani and other vegetable dishes. Curry leaves are used in almost all types of daily South Indian curries, vegetable side dishes, rasam, etc.
ReplyDeleteMost people set curry leaves aside and eat the dish, much like you would with bay leaves. But I eat the curry leaves in my food - they have a bitter, very light citric flavor which I like (grapefruit juice fan here!).
Curry leaves are called kadipatta or karipatta in Hindi. Bay leaves are called Tej patta.
Incidentally, the name for curry leaves in all South Indian languages literally translates to 'black neem leaves'.
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ReplyDeleteBuy a curry leaf plant....or ask a kindly desi for a baby plant. I plan to, soon.
Priya.
Exactly, Priya! That is what I wanted to do. In fact, when I was in India about a year ago, I even went shopping for curry leaves plant seeds. But I could not find them in the market I went to. And, I did not have time enough to look in other places. I should start looking around for a curry leaves plant soon.
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