Make Ahead
Madras Curry Powder (With Many Influences)
- Makes Maybe 8 oz ?
Author Notes
I used store bought Curry Powder for years but never again! This recipe is admittedly overkill on the number and variety of ingredients. Any number of ingredients could be left out or substituted but this is where I ended up after a good deal of trial and error. This is a well balanced Madras Curry Powder with lots of flavor. Once it’s made, I can whip up many curry dishes with ease because most of the complexity is in the powder. I stole ideas and ingredients from many different curry powder recipes in order to get started and then just tried different ingredients and combinations: taste, modify, repeat; until I ended up with this. —Dan
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- Roasting Ingredients
-
3
Green Cardamom Pods
-
4 grams
Stick of Cinnamon
-
4
Cloves
-
2 tablespoons
Cumin Seed
-
1 teaspoon
Fenugreek Seeds
-
1 teaspoon
Fennel Seeds (or Anise Seeds)
-
1 tablespoon
Peppercorns
-
2 tablespoons
Coriander Seeds
-
1 1/2 teaspoons
Mustard Seed (or 1 tsp of dark mustard seed)
-
1/2 teaspoon
Hing (Asafoetida) (roast this even if in powder form)
- Grind or Mix In Without Roasting Ingredients
-
3
Dried red chile pods, preferrably Kashmiri Chiles, deseeded
-
3
Dried Thai chile pods, deseeded
-
2 teaspoons
Freeze dried Ginger (or 1 - 2 tsp ginger powder)
-
15
Dried curry leaves
-
1 tablespoon
Dried Fenugreek Leaves (approx. this stuff is kind of hard to measure)
-
1/4 teaspoon
Allspice powder (or sub. Nutmeg)
Directions
- ROAST: Using a dry, non-stick pan on the stove-top, roast each of the "Roasting Ingredients" one at a time on low - medium heat. I like to roast them in the order listed. I roast the cardamom in the pods until they turn light brown and then shell them just keeping the seeds. I break up the cinnamon sticks with my fingers as I toss them into the pan for better roasting. Roast each ingredient carefully; watch for color turning or smell the aromatics to let you know it's ready. Err on the side of caution and remove before burning.
- GRIND: Using a spice or coffee grinder, grind up all of the roasted ingredients, the chiles, the dried leaves, and the freeze dried ginger. You may need to do this in several runs depending on the size of your grinder.
- MIX: Dump all of your ground powders together in a mixing bowl with the turmeric and allspice. Mix well; a fork is usually good for this.
- REFINE: If needed, you might want to sift your powder and toss some of the more course material back into the grinder for a second run and mix it back in. This will help make sure the flavors are will mingled.
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