Home-made Curry Powder [Video]
It turns out that curry powder was a British invention, to simplify the creation of Indian dishes. The term “curry” is the anglicized version of the Tamil word kari, which translates to the generic word “sauce.”There is no standard recipe and both the selection of spices and their ratios vary from recipe to recipe and from brand to brand. However there are several spices that more often than not are included in curry powder and those include coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, fenugreek, fennel, curry leaf or bay leaf, garlic, black pepper and red chilies. Cardamom is sometimes included though less commonly. The cardamom flavor is featured more commonly in Garam Marsala. For spicy-hot curry, more red chilies and yellow mustard seeds are added.This is the ultimate curry powder, this blend is an absolute feast for the senses and hands down beats anything you'll find at the store!
Servings: 8 tablespoons
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coriander seeds
- 4 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds optional, for added heat
- 4 small dried red chili peppers
- 4 dried curry leaves can substitute 1 large bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium heat and roast the whole spices and curry/bay leaves for a few minutes until very fragrant. Be careful not to scorch the spices or they will be bitter. Let the spices cool completely.
- Place the whole spices in a spice/coffee grinder along with the remaining ingredients and grind until you get a fine powder.
- Store the curry powder in an airtight jar in a dark, cool place. Will keep for several months but for best flavor use within a few weeks.
- Makes approx. ½ cup of curry powder.
Notes
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To Make Curry Paste: Combine 1 tablespoon of curry powder with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of oil and mix together. You can also add some finely minced garlic and ginger. (You can use larger quantities of the paste ingredients and puree everything together in a blender.)
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For a Thai curry paste, replace the water with fish sauce and add a squirt of lime juice.
- Curry Powder and Madras Curry Powder – What’s the Difference? They both have the same ingredients and thus the same flavor, but they differ in their level of heat. Standard curry powder is milder whereas Madras curry powder is hot. This heat come from adding more red chilies as well as yellow mustard seeds. You can easily adapt this recipe to make Madras curry powder by adding these two ingredients.
