Madras Curry Powder / Masala

Madras Curry Powder

July 5

Day 35 of unlock 1.0

We are already into July and still monsoons are not here. Just form last two days the skies are a bit overcast and occasional rains, but still it doesn't look like monsoon rains. Met department says we will get a lot of rain this week. I heard that Mumbai is already getting a whole lot of rain from past two days. However I do not want to witness anything like last time - the horrible cloudburst over Pune which had thrown life out of normalcy.

The crop harvesting is in full swing in the fields in front of my home. Everyday I start my day with a cup of chai and watching the farmers cut the crops. Its a real visual treat to get the feel of farms right in front of my home that too in a city like Pune. When people need to go to some hill station to detox, I am fortunate enough to have a horizon of detoxifying view right in front of my home. This weather calls for some unique food experiments. And that has become the norm for me during this lock down. One such experiments resulted in me making Madras curry powder at home from scratch.

Frankly speaking, I had never explored the prospect of cooking with Curry powder. I had a kind of notion that curry powder was supposed to be used for making sambar or some south Indian flavored vegetarian curry. It never occurred to me that curry powder can also be used for non vegetarian preparations.

But one day while looking for some change in terms of chicken curry recipe I came across the Singaporean chicken curry recipe. And the core ingredient mentioned under the ingredient list was the madras curry powder. I was pretty surprised at the fact that Singaporean curry uses a curry made in India as their primary ingredient. But nonetheless I had a task cut out for me - either try and get this fabled madras curry powder somewhere from any online store, or try to recreate it at home. With the lock down still continuing in full vigor half of things are not available for delivery in my area and those that are are charging exorbitant delivery charges.

Thus I decided to take a shot at making this spice mix myself. After all how difficult can it be to make an Indian origin spice mix, considering the fact that I myself is also and Indian and I was assuming, most of the ingredients would be handy in my pantry.

Thus began a quick search on Madras curry powder. It so happens that this apparently simple curry mix has several variations, even regionally.Now when you try to make something which is from a different cuisine culture than your own, you kind of stumble a bit in figuring out what would be the authentic aroma and taste profile be like. So then I did what I could do best in this situation. I read up the various recipes, tried to associate them with the signature curry powder aromatics and then finally arrive at a conclusion as to which combination I was going to use.

This is the final recipe that I decided to go with. Its fragrant, earthy and with a kick of chilli that adds a heady note to any dish which has this spice mix. Not only in curries but they can also be used for stir fries. And let me tell you it worked wonderfully well with the Singaporean chicken preparation. I am going to publish two more post in this series talking about the Singaporean curry paste and the Singaporean chicken curry. So stay tuned.

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time: NA

Serving : 1 serving of curry powder good to make a dish for 4- 5 people

Ingredients :

• Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
• Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp
• Dried Red Chilli - 12
• Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 ts
• Black Peppercorn - 1/2 tsp
• Dried Ginger Powder (Sonth) - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
• Cardamom - 5 whole
• Curry leaves - 10, dried and crushed (about 1 tsp)
• Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

1.  Dry roast the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, black peppercorn, cardamom, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, whole red chilli over low to medium heat in a skillet until fragrant. Cool down the spices before proceeding to next step.

2. Take a grinder jar and add the toasted spices. Crush the dried curry leaves and add it to the spices. Add the dried ginger powder and turmeric.

3. Grind the spices to a powder like consistency

4. Store in an airtight jar

Easier Recipe:

For people who want to further bring down the preparation time of this spice mix, may replace the whole spices with the store bought powdered ones. 

Like I have tried - coriander powder. cumin powder, turmeric, kashmiri red chilli powder, dry ginger powder and cinnamon powder to replace the whole spices and the result was not bad. 

But I would recommend, that if you are choosing to follow the easier method, then do a mix and match, like 80% of the spices can be store bought powders while 20% of them can be things which you add fresh. For an example, dried curry leaves, crushed black pepper or powdered fennel. This will balance the freshness even if you are using store bought powders.

Some Tips:

1. While toasting the whole spices, keep stirring them to avoid them getting burnt

2. Medium heat is the key to bring out the oils in the spices to their optimum level

3. Make in small batches so that you can always get a fresh batch for your preparations and the flavors are strong.

4. For making the spice mix, I would recommend to use organic spices. The normal ones now a days are derived of their essential oils hence may yield a lesser fragrant spice mix. Organic spices are a bit expensive, but they still have some of the essential oils retailed. 

5. Preserve the spice mix in an airtight jar. I keep mine in the fridge and it stays nice and fresh for quite some time. But still I recommend to make as much required only.

6. Dry ginger powder is a key element in transforming the aromatics. If you do not have the ginger powder, make sure you are not skipping the fenugreek seeds. It will kind of compensate for the ginger powder, though not fully.

Do try this out and tag me (@curriesnstories07) on Instagram on your photos whenever you try the recipe and I will give a shout out to you.