How to Make Curry Powder

What is curry powder?

Curry powder is an aromatic blend of spices, including coriander seeds, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, fenugreek seeds and cloves. Although it is often linked with Indian cuisine, curry powder was never a spice blend widely used in India. According to some accounts it was created by Indian cooks in Britain who had a limited variety of spices available to them; others say it was put together by Indian spice merchants as an all-purpose blend that the British colonists, who had fallen in love with India's delicious cuisine, could take with them when they returned home.

Most Indian cooks have long regarded curry powder as a bit of a joke because in the land of a million masalas, each tailored to the recipe at hand, no cook worth their salt would use an all-purpose blend. As the great Madhur Jaffrey, who has done more to educate the world about the many intricacies of Indian cuisine than any other single person, declared: cooking with the same spice mix again and again would make all dishes taste alike.

But despite this repudiation, and in a world where authentic recipes for dozens of Indian spice blends, or masalas, are available with a few taps of the keyboard, curry powder has only grown in popularity. It has even made inroads into India, where popular spice brands now offer prepared blends, and you can find versions of curry powder across the globe, wherever Indians have historically migrated, including in the Caribbean, Malaysia, South Africa and Thailand.

As an Indian-born cook I choose authenticity when I make traditional recipes, like vegetable biryani or sambar. But I also enjoy pushing the envelope occasionally. I agree with purists like Jaffrey about the limitations blends like curry powder impose on the flavor and complexity of true Indian dishes. But I also have a jar of curry powder on my spice rack for recipes that are unconventional or modern but inspired by Indian cuisine, like this reader-favorite vegetable curry.

There are so many recipes for curry powder on the web and if you're wondering why you need another one, here's why. Many of those curry powder recipes look just like garam masala, which is a completely different Indian spice blend. Many are made simply by mixing together powdered spices. Doing both of the above may be easier, but my curry powder recipe, which I've arrived at after years of experimentation and tweaking, will reward you with a flavorful and unique spice blend that will blow your socks off and last a year or more without losing any of its wonderful aroma.

You will need whole spices to make this curry powder. This is very important if you're serious about making your own spice blends. When you toast whole spices and blend them, they release their aromatic oils. Smell this mix and then smell another made with powdered spices, which are not roasted and have been sitting on the shelf of a store for heaven knows how long, and you will know the difference. Better still, you will taste the difference in your dishes.

Making your own curry powder is easy - it takes me five minutes to gather the ingredients, another three or four minutes to roast them, and finally a minute or so to blend them up after they have cooled. This recipe makes enough to fill a 12-ounce mason jar or about 24 tablespoons so you'll have enough to make all of your favorite curries!