Time to make more. This will make one cup for less than a dollar. Salt free and zero fillers.
And by one cup. I mean one cup.
If you want to upgrade your curry for free (and some extra effort, and this is assuming your curry process involves the use of a blender), consider toasting your whole spices in your pan right before adding your wet ingredients or main wet ingredient instead of pregrinding them.
If you’re going for speed, though, pregrinding in bulk is hard to beat.
These are all toasted and allowed to cool before visiting the grinder.
Are you doing this in remembrance of tim curry?
The world is running low on Tim Curry at the moment.
No. But I should have.
Why not include the names of the actual spices you are using and their quantities?
Because it’s extra work if nobody wants it. Some people post every 6 months some people post everyday. It really adds up if you’re a frequent poster.
Curry Powder
Servings: 1 cup
2 tbsp cardamom pods
6 tbsp cumin seeds
8 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
3 tbsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp whole cloves
1 tbsp ground cayenne- place all but the last three items in a skillet already heated to medium-high heat
- shake and stir them until the cumin seeds start popping or smoking and shake some more to keep the smoke to a minimum (about 3-5 minutes total)
- let cool completely (this will happen faster if removed from the skillet to a baking sheet
- remove and discard the husks from the cardamom pods
! you can open them up by putting them in a mortar and pestle beating them up a little. - in a small bowl combine all the items and mix well
- working in batches with a spice grinder process until you have a fine powder
! if you don’t have a great spice grinder then I recommend sifting the powder through a mess strainer before storing - store in an air tight container
Can you tell me which country/region did you get the recepie from? Just curious about the use of fenugreek because in my culture they use it very specifically and never for a curry powder.
I am a south Indian BTW
I would have no idea on its origins. I grabbed a recipe 20 years ago and made adjustments to it until it felt right. I do remember that fenugreek was part of the recipe and I didn’t change the amount.
The “rule” I follow is, if the recepie is supposed to be sour, say tamarind rice you have to add fenugreek as it adds bitterness and cuts through the sourness a bit.
Further, some other weird rules I follow is, if tamarind goes in then jaggery goes in. Example: Rasam, Sambar or even tamarind rice haha.
That’s interesting. Fenugreek is probably one of the spices I know the least about. I’ve never done any experiments with it and different dishes to see what experience it creates. None of the recipes you named are ones I’ve even heard of. I think most of my Curry experiences from the northern and western parts of the country. For example, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a seafood recipe in an Indian restaurant and I know seafood is much more common in the South.
Interesting but to make it interesting Bengali cuisine have a lot of sea food dishes. Albeit Bengal is in east of India.
Also tamarind rice is very easy and simple to make.
Ingredients 2 tbsp of groundnuts 2 tsp of urad dal (if available) 2 tsp channa dal (if available) 1 small lime sized tamarind soaked in water 1 brown onion sliced 1 green chilli sliced 2 cups cooked rice 2-3 tsp salt (according to preferance) 1 tbsp brown sugar/ palm sugar/ jaggery 1-2 tbsp oil to saute (neutral oil such as sunflower or peanut oil preferred) Curry leaf (if available)
Method
In a pan, heat oil until medium hot, add peanuts let it cook for a while, add urad and channa dal saute until crispy/crunchy set aside.
In the same pan add a bit more oil, saute onions, green chilli and curry leaves until you feel right. Squeeze the tamarind and add the tamarind water, add brown sugar cook until the mixture turns jammy. Turn off the gas, add rice and salt accordingly mix it well until rice soaks in the colour of tamarind.
Woala enjoy!!!
Enjoy it with your bean salad(side salad) for your protein and fibre goals :p
Thank you for sharing it. I’ve never made my curry but plenty of other spice mix. You are inspiring me. Although I prefer my currys with tumeric as the first ingredient and some mustard grains.
Curry is highly variable. Whatever works for you.
ʘ‿ʘ
Whole spices are incredibly cheap, and they last a long time. People will tell you they start to lose aroma after a little bit, and it’s true, but usually you can just add more.
Chai masala is another good one to make.
Where can you get whole spices for cheap?
Find your local ethnic markets. Maybe a tienda or an asian market or a Indian one. Maybe you have a Super Giant Mega international market like Super G or H within driving distance.
I shop at my local Chinese and Indian markets on a semi regular basis, but their whole spices are generally more expensive than the pre-ground stuff.
Time to find your non local one
Like OP said, definitely whatever specific ethnic markets might be around. I go to an east Asian grocery store, an Indian store, a Latino store, and a Turkish store.
Some spices are literally repackaged by the grocery store into ziploc bags, and some are brand names in alphabets I dont know, but here are some brand names to search:
Laxmi, Suraj, Roshni, and Wise Wife for Indian spices
Badia and La Fiesta for Latino spices and peppers.
Sadaf for middle eastern/Mediterranean.
East Asian brands (at least that I have) appear to be less dominated by a few players, and they appear to be the ones that aren’t using the Latin alphabet.
It’s all probably stuff you can get on Amazon, though obviously, id avoid that if you can. If you dont have any good stores where you live, spices aren’t a bad thing to bring home from a vacation.
Last thing I’ll mention is to avoid any sketchy seeming brands selling preground spices that are red/orange/yellow. Think spices like sumac, cinnamon, saffron(which you shouldn’t buy ground anyway). Bad suppliers will occasionally dose those with lead oxides to make the color more vibrant.
Also this is more east coast, but 24mantra and Fyve Elements(brand) also has decent spices. Same with Three Rivers (MENA spices).
Also you’ll probably find MDH more through out the US but their Garam masala powder isn’t awful. Better than Shan (even accounting for saffron).
Source: Parents own and run an Indian grocery store and I basically live there, we get stuff from Roshni, Fyve Elements and Shata Traders (they sell three rivers).
I can answer other questions you might have.
Yeah, things with unrealistic colors for the type should definitely be avoided. If Dollar Tree has had to do recalls because of too much lead in its ground cinnamon then other suppliers are doing it too. Which is another reason to buy whole spices and grind your own.
I replied here https://reddthat.com/comment/28797997
Chili powder, garam masala, Greek seasoning, curry powder, taco seasoning, Italian seasoning, and occasionally Emeril’s Bam.
I make all of them from scratch. Though I have been using Greek instead of Italian for any recipe I can get away with it in so I have been doing Italian as needed lately.
If you like Greek you may also like za’atar. Really easy to make but I do not have a recipe, only done it a few times.
Sumac isn’t something I have found at my places. It grows wild across the street unfortunately it’s the toxic kind.
Looks like a map of USA.
You mean South Canada?
The 11th province
We don’t want them.
Coriander, fennel, cardamom, peppercorns, clove. I don’t recognize the bottom center brown one.
Cup is turmeric and ground peppers?
Fenugreek is the one you didn’t get. You didn’t list cumin.
Cup is mostly turmeric but the cayenne pepper is on top.
That’s the brownest cayenne I’ve ever seen.
Lighting issues. Those cummin seeds are more brown than tan in real life. I think the metal and yellow tumeric are causing the cayenne to wash out.
I’m confused; how did this come to less than a dollar?
I buy spices in bulk at ethnic markets. Not the tiny McCormick jars that cost the same amount as the bulk ones at ethnic markets.
I though this was going to be a map of the usa
Did you mean South Canada?
Lol yeah i didn’t know the meme yet :p
I had a feeling that you’d read it, shrug, encounter it within a day and be all “ooooh.”
