Sensational curries
One of the best foods for Kreutzing is curry, especially when your objective for Kreutzing is weight loss.
Of course, you cook them yourself, because most commercial curries are low-quality, even in countries where curries are commonly cooked in ordinary households.
In India, they are often too heavily loaded with chili, which destroys the delicate flavor of some of the spices.
In Thailand, most commercial curries are prepared with fermented fish sauce or shrimp paste. That destroys the flowery flavor of the curry spices. No wonder they have to mask this with chili.
The best country for curries is Malaysia. In Malaysia, even I can consume commercial curries.
But even those are no match for what I cook myself.
My own curries are a smart drug. Their taste stimulates my creativity even more than chocolate.
As I have explained in other articles, the effects of taste on the brain are widely underestimated. Everybody knows that if something tastes really great, we want to exclaim: wow, that is delicious!
But observe yourself one step further. Delicious tastes are not just in the mouth. They change your train of thought. Great tastes make you optimistic, make you friendly with the people around you, and give you self-esteem. Great tastes release dopamine in your brain, much more comfortably than amphetamines. In my experience, they can elevate mood more pleasantly than antidepressants like Prozac or St. John’s wort.
And great tastes are a smart drug. They facilitate the flow of thoughts. Many creative writers eat chocolate when they work, as do students when they have to memorize what they read. And it’s not the sugar they digest which gives them spikes of inspiration and tunes their minds. It’s the taste of chocolate.
I can provoke different states of mind by putting different tastes in my mouth. Tastes are a powerful oral aromatherapy.
Sweet, creamy tastes like that of chocolate have the most exciting effect. Tastes like those of cheese, wine, and olives are better compared to leaning back in an armchair.
Curries belong in the same category as chocolate. Yes, chocolate. Most people who only know commercial curries are probably not aware of this. Overly spicy tastes like those of chili and pepper are not usually associated with sweetness.
But the basic flavor of curry spices is similar to the smell of flowers.
You can try this out easily yourself. Just prepare a set of small stainless steel bowls, put some coconut milk in each, add just one curry spice to each, and then heat them.
What you will notice for each flavor is, surprisingly, a somewhat hollow bitterness. And even if you mix them all together, the hollow bitterness will not disappear. Why is that?
Actually, each curry spice by itself has a delicate flavor. But it is not accessible to your taste buds unless you add a sweetener.
Add just a little sugar to each bowl, and the delicate flowery taste will appear.
The fact that you have to add a sweetener to curries is the best-kept secret of curry recipes, and it is seldom pointed out in curry literature. Recipes talk about coriander and cardamom, cumin and ginger, or fenugreek and mustard seeds.
There are many variations in how these spices can be combined. But common to all is the addition of a sweetener.
If you do not have any other carrier of sweetness, plain sugar will do. Palm sugar, of course, is better.
But my favorite sweetening agent for curries is onions. Onions?
That is another common misconception. Most people would categorize onions as a pungent ingredient. But just boil a kilo of onions with some meat for an hour or so, then let it cool down.
The onions will even caramelize, forming a layer on the surface of the broth.
The water from boiling onions for half an hour is my favorite sweetening ingredient when I cook curries.
I seldom use chili in curries. The heat of chili is just too radical. Paprika powder is better. To make curries spicier, I use a combination of paprika and wasabi. Wasabi, similar to horseradish, does not grow in curry-producing countries. It is of Japanese origin. But the heat it can add to curries is not as harsh as the heat from chili.
Another aspect of optimal curry tasting is temperature. After cooking them, let them cool down to a temperature at which you feel comfortable rolling them in your mouth. If you eat them at too high a temperature, your taste buds will simply be overwhelmed without capturing the taste. Curries should also not be cold. Warmth is needed for your taste buds to be fully receptive.
My private curry orgies can last two hours. And because I am Kreutzing curries, all this pleasure, and the accompanying bursts of creativity, are practically calorie-free.