No need to make the same old, same old curry dishes all the time. Try these 18 Delicious and Best Curry Recipes so you’ll never run out of ideas for your next dinner!
Do you love curry? I truly do! Funny thing is, I didn’t even like curry before. Yes, I am a full-blooded Asian but prior to getting married, I never even liked curry. But my then boyfriend (now husband!) Mark, who is such a huge curry fan, asked me to try it. We were in London at that time, as I was in the UK studying for my master’s degree, and we went to his favorite curry house in the city that day nearly 20 years ago now. After that dinner, I was hooked. I cannot believe I haven’t tried that kind of curry in the Philippines. It was so good. The taste and spicy-ness blew me away. You’re perhaps wondering, how come I’ve never had that?
First of all, the Philippines, the country as a whole, is not much into curry-style dishes. Except for one region, the Bicol region in the middle of the archipelago, the only region with fiery dishes, the rest of the country has a more savory and rather mild-in-heat kind of food. It doesn’t mean they’re not tasty, the dishes are flavorful and delicious, just not very spicy. So I never grew up eating many spicy foods. I was always scared of trying “curry” as in my mind it often registered as crazy spicy food. While that may be true for some curry dishes, I discovered soon after that dinner in London that there are actually many mildly-flavored curries that would suit anyone’s palate.
Fast forward to 2019, when a good friend of mine recently asked me to help her learn how to make curry dishes at home, I dug into my archives to find recipes loaded with delicious spices. Can you believe I actually found 18 curry-style dishes on my blog alone? These are just the published ones and I still have some on draft form and yet to be developed and perhaps I haven’t even seen them all. Now, I can honestly say I love curry and I think 18 created curry dishes on this blog should prove that. I even titled a curry after my own name…how pretentious! I was probably curry-obsessed when I made that. Today, I no longer name my dishes after me. Promise.
Anyway, I know you wish to get to the dishes now but please bear with me. Just wanted to give a quick explanation on what defines a curry dish. A dish may or may not have “curry powder” as ingredient per se and yet it is still a curry dish. It is not so much the addition of curry powder and voila – it’s now curry. I do use curry powder in making chicken salad but it doesn’t make it a curry, it’s still chicken salad but made even better with a little curry powder for seasoning. It’s primarily a dish seasoned and flavored with a variety of spices (like ginger, cumin, turmeric, etc) and may range in heat from mild, medium to crazy hot. It can be both dry and wet. Beef Rendang below is a good example of a dryer curry where most of the liquid is allowed to evaporate as it cooks. Others are more wet and saucy leaving a lot of gravy for you to soak the rice with. Both types are equally delicious. And of course many countries around the world have their own versions or combination of spices. In the Philippines it’s always ginger and turmeric with a lot of coconut milk and some red chilis thrown in but definitely mildly spiced. So, with that crash course into curry, let’s enjoy the recipes.
Oooops! One more thing. Please forgive the old ugly photos with some of the dishes here. I’ve been blogging for over 6 years now and some of these were very early photos (which I know I need to update!!!) and I still didn’t know how to take proper photos then. Don’t worry the recipes would still be tasty though the photos may not look so! 🙂
Filipino Coconut Chicken Curry
Last updated on October 1st, 2019 at 03:19 pm
I really enjoy your recipes and stories; however, where are the vegetables?
Author
I didn’t add any vegetarian curry here but some curries have vegetables in there or you can always have a side dish with veggies.
Do you have a Coconut Lentil Curry recipe?
Author
This is my only lentil recipe for now. I do have other coconut curry recipes. Simply enter coconut on the keyword search box above my name if you need to check these recipes. Thanks.
This isn’t necessarily a curry recipe request, however, I was wondering if you have a Bicol Express recipe? I’ve recently discovered this dish at a local Filipino restaurant and have fallen in love with it. Nevertheless, I love the recipes and have been following you on FB for over 5 years
Author
Hi Chaz! I do have one but just haven’t posted it though I plan to do so soon. Will post in on FB. Appreciate your support! Thank you!