A couple of weeks ago, when we were making Coconut Curry Simmer Sauce, we used up the last of our curry powder. We put it on our grocery list, even though we mentioned that curry powder is simply a mix of spices, and, that in India, nearly every family has its own version. We, even though we’re dedicated Scratchers, somehow missed the idea that we could make our own curry powder. How did that happen?
A few days ago, we were looking through a book on sauces, and we saw a recipe for curry powder. That reminded us that there’s also a recipe in the back of Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller. Now, we could have used either, and probably had a good curry powder, regardless, but we went with the recipe in Ad Hoc, because we’ve tried a number of Thomas Keller’s recipes and have rarely been disappointed.
Don’t be afraid of the long list of spices; we didn’t have them all, and, anything we didn’t have, we simply left out (or substituted whole spices for ground or ground spices for whole). We also scaled back the recipe to make about 1/4 the original, as we don’t think anyone except hard-core curry fans will want an entire cup of curry powder at one time. This scaling did change the proportions of some of the spices slightly.
Yellow Curry Powder
Ingredients
- 1/8 tsp ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp anise seeds
- 1/4 bay leaf
- 3/4 tsp brown mustard seeds
- 3/4 tsp ground cardamom seeds from 2-3 pods
- 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
- 1/8 tsp whole cloves about 2-3
- 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp whole mace
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
- 1/2 medium star anise
- 3/4 tsp yellow mustard seeds
- 1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a spice grinder and grind for about 30 seconds. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh strainer by tapping the sides of the strainer to shake the ground spices through.
- Return the un-ground pieces in the strainer to the grinder, and repeat grinding and stirring two more times. Discard any remaining pieces of un-ground spices.
- Transfer curry powder to a covered container.
Ingredient discussion:
With that long list of spices, we really doubt that you’ll have them all. We hadn’t. We had to leave out: anise seeds, fenugreek seeds, mace, and star anise, and had to use smoked paprika in place of sweet paprika. You’ll probably have a few that you’ll have to omit, too. We think that if you have, oh, probably half the spices listed, you’ll make something good, so go for it.
Procedure in detail:
Grind. Place all the spices in a spice grinder. If you don’t have a spice grinder, you can try a blender, or a mortar and pestle. After all, people made curry powders long before they had spice grinders, so you can do it. Once in the grinder, or whatever you’re using, grind until it sounds or looks as if you have mostly powder. For us, with an electric grinder (really a dedicated coffee grinder), we turned it on for about 30 seconds.
Sift. Pour the mixture into a fine-mesh strainer placed over a bowl (depending on the size of your strainer, you might be able to set a funnel right into a spice jar and hold the strainer over the funnel) and tap the side of the strainer to shake the ground spices through. Continue tapping until you have only larger, un-ground pieces of spice in the strainer.
Regrind. Return the un-ground pieces to the grinder and grind again. Sift again, and repeat one more time. Finally, discard any pieces of un-ground spices that remain and transfer your curry powder to a closed container.
The hardest part of making this is measuring all the spices listed. The rest is easy. And, while we haven’t make a curry from this curry powder yet, we did give the mixture a little taste, and it seemed pretty good. For ease alone it would get five stars, but, with all those spices listed, we’ll say four stars.
