Curry Spice Blend

Home Made Curry Powder

The layers are so pretty before they get shaken to blend

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons Ground Coriander*
• 4 Teaspoons Turmeric Powder
• 3 Teaspoons Cumin Powder
• 1-2 Teaspoons Ground Black Pepper*
• 1/2 Teaspoon Crushed Red Chili Flakes
• 1 Teaspoon Cardamom Powder*
• 3 Teaspoons Cinnamon Powder(or 2-3 inches cinnamon stick, toasted and powdered*)
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cloves*
• 1/2 Ground Ginger Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Fennel Seeds, Ground*
• 2 Teaspoons Mustard Seeds, Ground*
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 2-3 Teaspoons Paprika

* If you have whole spices instead of ground, don't worry! In a dry skillet over medium heat, lightly toast the measured amount of whole spices until the fragrances pop or bloom (you can really smell them strongly)  then transfer toasted spices to a mortar and grind with a pestle or you can grind the spices in a spice grinder, blender, clean coffee bean grinder etc. Then mix the freshly ground spices into the rest of the ingredients.

Instructions:

1. As required, lightly toast and grind any whole spices you are using. Measure out the rest of the ingredients into a small bowl. Stir all the ground spices together. Store in an air tight container for pretty much ever. . .  or until the spices no longer smell strongly.
2. Makes a little less than a cup of spice blend. Which seems like a lot until you realize that you often use 2-6 tablespoons of it at once in a recipe.
3. Use in curries, soups, on veggies, in dips etc.

Enjoy!

Notes:

You can adjust the spices in this recipe to better suit your tastes. Things like turmeric, cayenne, crushed chilies and cumin will add more heat. Ginger, fennel, cloves, ginger will add a little bit of sweetness to compensate the spice, an the others bring complexity to the final combined flavors. If you know you really like the flavor of one of the spices, try adding more of that spice as a way to start experimenting. Just keep track of the changes you make, or else you could end up with the perfect curry spice in a jar, but no way to recreate it again. Which would be sad.

Always keep notes! This is my training as a biologist coming back. . . always keep clear and dated notes to know what you were doing in case something awesome happens unexpectedly.

Happy spice blending!

Other Places:

How about Trying to make a curry?

Coconut Curried Chicken