Curry powders

The word curry evolved from the Tamil word kari, meaning any food cooked in a sauce. There is little doubt that curry powder, a ready-made blend of spices, was an early convenience food, prepared for merchants, sailors and military men who had served in the East and wished to bring these exotic flavors home. In India, the spices would have been prepared in the kitchen on a daily basis.

Over the decades and centuries these spice and curry mixtures have changed and developed, as have our tastes, so that today our supermarket shelves carry a wealth of different spice mixtures from all parts of the globe.

For enthusiastic cooks it is fun and a creative challenge to make up your own curry powder. Keep experimenting until you find the balance of spicing which suits you and your family. Of course, it is perfectly possible to mix ground spices, but it is more satisfying ( and more satisfactory in terms of flavor) to start with whole spices where possible.

Curry powder is a mixture of many different spices, sometimes as many as thirty. Some of the commonly used ingredients are coriander, pepper, ginger, allspice, paprika, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, cumin and turmeric. Depending on their composition, the powders may be mild or hot.

To make your own:  See the curry powders recipes posting on our Herb & Spice recipes section.

Curry pastes

On market stalls throughout South-east Asia are mounds of pounded wet spices : lemon grass, chili, ginger, garlic, galangal, shallots and tamarind. After purchasing meat, chicken or fish all the cook has to do is to call on the spices seller. He or she will ask a few questions: "What sort of curry is it to be? Hot or mild? how many servings?" Having ascertained a few more pleasantries (the buying of spices is a serious yet sociable affair) the appropriate quantities of each spice will be scooped on to a banana leaf and folded into a neat cone, ready to be taken home.

We may not be able to buy our ingredients in such colorful surroundings, but supermarkets stock some very good ready-made pastes, or you can make your own. By experimenting, you will find the balance of flavors you like, and can then make up one or more of your favorite mixtures in bulk.

If you grind wet spices a lot, you may wish to invest in a traditional, large oriental mortar with a rough, pitted or ridged bowl, which helps to "hold" the ingredients while they are being pounded with the pestle.

Alternatively, for speed, you can use a food processor or blender instead of a mortar and pestle. Store any surplus curry paste in plastic tubs in the freezer.

To make your own:  See the curry pastes recipes posting on our Herb & Spice recipes section.

Garam Masala = Indian sweet spice mix = sweet spice mix

Masala is the catch-all Hindi term for a spice mixture. Popular masala include garam masala, chat masala, and sambar masala.

You can buy this garam masala either whole or ground or mix you own with 2 parts ground cardamom, 5 parts ground coriander, 4 parts ground cumin, 2 parts ground black pepper, 1 part ground cloves, 1 part ground cinnamon, 1 part ground nutmeg.

Chat masala or chaat masala  can be prepare by roast in a pan one tablespoon coriander seeds and two tablespoons cumin seeds, then grind them along with two tablespoons black peppercorns, one tablespoon crushed dried red chili peppers, one tablespoon amchoor powder, and one tablespoon salt.

Five spice = panch phoron = panch pharon = panchphoran

This is a Bengali spice mix that combine aniseed, cumin, fenugreek, mustard and nigella. Don't confuse it with Chinese five spice powder, which is completely different.
 

Tandoori seasoning

To make your own:  See the tandoori recipes posting on our Herb & Spice recipes section.