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Curry Powder is a general term
Curry Powder is a very general term for a mix of spices which can be used to make a curry, but even the word curry is extremely general and covers many styles and types of cooking across the whole world.
For an Indian style Curry Powder there are two essential ingredients (in my opinion) and these are Cumin and Coriander seeds.
Just these two alone as a base on which to make a curry can produce a pretty good result especially if the spices are toasted and freshly ground.
I suppose the reason for curry powder at all is to take away some of the supposed complexity of many of the spices which we use to make a curry and to leave the chef armed with a simpler ingredient.
This type of curry powder requires a few more ingredients which are therefore also essential and potentially dozens of optional extras.
The absolute minimum for a chef's simple curry powder would therefore be Cumin and Coriander as discussed plus turmeric for mainly coloring and of course chilli powder for heat.
This basic Curry Powder can then be augmented with many numbers of spices most usually, dried ginger, black pepper, cloves, mace, green cardamom, black cardamom, bay, cinnamon.
Often these latter spices would be made into a Garam massalla Curry Powder and added late in the cooking of the curry to create great aromatics, but a little in the beginning can give the spice foundation and time to permeate fully into the substance of your final curry dish.
Curry Powder like all ground spices rapidly loses aroma and flavor when exposed to the air so should ideally be stored in air tight packages in a cool dark larder.
I would not advise keeping curry powders for too long as they do deteriorate quite rapidly.
The best advice is to keep whole spices and toast and grind as required as this gives the freshest possible result.
Curry Powder Recipe
Curry powder ingredients
Serves 4
- 5 Tablespoons coriander Seeds
- 7 Tablespoons cumin seeds
- 3 Tablespoon Turmeric
- 1 teaspoon chilli powder (optional or more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder (optional)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
- 1 teaspoon Mace (optional)
- Pinch Aesfotida (optional)
Making the curry powder
Toast the whole seeds in a frying pan until they begin to crackle, grind in a pestle and mortar, this is easier with hot toasted seeds, and I suspect that is why we discovered toasted seeds have more flavor.
You will notice I only use a little chilli powder, I normally add more towards the end of cooking or fresh chillies if more heat is needed. Mix all the spices together and store in an air tight jar.
