Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Herb guide to Curry Leaf along with all the Curry Leaf containing recipes presented on this site, with 268 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives information about Curry Leaf and a listing of all the Curry Leaf-based recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Curry Leaf as a major herb flavouring.

Curry leaf refers to the leaves of Murraya koenigii (also known as the Curry Tree, Curry-leaf Tree, Kariveppilai [Tamil] and Kari Bevu) is a tropical and sub-tropical tree which is a member of the Rutaceae (citrus) family. The Curry Leaf tree is a a small tree, growing 4–6 m tall, with a trunk up to 40 cm diameter. The leaves are pinnate, with 11–21 leaflets, each leaflet 2–4 cm long and 1–2 cm broad. The flowers are small white, and fragrant. The small black, shiny berries are edible, but their seeds are poisonous.

The leaves themselves are highly aromatic with a citrusy scent that's reminiscent of the clementine/tangerine family of citrus fruit. The leaves lose their delicate aroma very quickly and should always be used fresh (there's no point in using the dried varieties). Indeed, just about the only way to get access to this herb is to grow your own (you can freeze to store), though they are available in most large cities these days and will keep for about 3 weeks in the refrigerator. Curry leaves are used extensively in the cuisines of southern India and Sri Lanka and indeed, these leaves are a necessity for an authentic flavour. In many cases the leaves may be fried in ghi (ghee, clarified butter) or dried in the oven before use.

Recent studies have shown that the essential oil of curry leaves are highly variable and can be quite different depending on where the leaves are sourced from. Leaves from Sri Lanka have been shown to contain the following aromatic compounds: β-caryophyllene (2.6 ppm), β-gurjunene (1.9), β-elemene (0.6), β-phellandrene (0.5), β-thujene (0.4), α-selinene (0.3), β-bisabolene (0.3), as well as traces limonene, β-trans-ocimene and β-cadinene (0.2 ppm). The essential oil from plants of north Indian origin showed a preponderance of monoterpenes (β-phellandrene, α-pinene, β-pinene) whereas, in contrast, plants from southern India yielded sesquiterpenes (β-caryophyllene, aromadendrene, α-selinene).

The word curry itself derives from the Tamil language of Southern India, where the word kari [கறி] literally means 'soup' or 'sauce', denoting the aromatic spice gravy in which dishes are cooked. In English, though, the word curry has adopted a broader meaning and denotes both spiced dishes with and without gravies, as well as Indian-style spice blends. Thus the curry leaf is both an important ingredient in Indian-style dishes as well as the spice blends used to prepare those dishes.