Roasted Curry Powder

This is Mom's version of roasted curry powder. I've been using this for years. Its best when its fresh. It can be used to make all kinds of curries; chicken, fish, beef, shrimp, vegetable, etc. Use this whenever you need curry powder in recipes. Make sure you leave windows open when you are preparing this since the fumes that are created during the roasting process can make you cough and there might be some smoke. It can be stored in an air tight container for months (mine lasts about 3 months).

• Ready In: 25 mins
• Yields: 1 pound curry powder

Ingredients

• 4  cups  coriander
• 2  cups fennel seeds
• 2  cups cumin
• 20  dried red chilies (use less if you want to decrease the heat)
• 1  tablespoon peppercorn
• 10  cardamoms
• 5  cloves
• 2  teaspoons turmeric powder

Directions

1. Set your burner on low heat, place a wok, or a pan and let it heat for about 2 minutes.
2. Roast coriander, fennel, cumin separately.
3. Stir with a wooden spatula as you roast them.
4. This helps the seeds to roast evenly.
5. Do not let them burn, when the seeds turn slightly brown (takes about 5-6 minutes), transfer them to a bowl.
6. Roast chillie, peppercorn, cardamom, cloves and turmeric for about 2 minutes.
7. Add the rest of the roasted spices into the wok and roast for 1 minute while mixing all the ingredients well.
8. Turn off the burner and let the spices cool for about 5 minutes.
9. Grind the spices in small batches in a coffee grinder.
10. (I usually have two coffee grinders, one for grinding spice, and the other for coffee. You can use the same if you would like to have spicy curry coffee) The amount of grinding depends of how fine or coarse you want the powder to be.
11. If you want it to be a fine powder grind it longer.
12. Transfer the curry powder to an air tight container.
13. If you would like to make smaller batches use smaller ratios for the coriander, fennel, cumin.
14. Try to stick to the 4:2:2 ratio.
15. Adjust the rest of the ingredients to fit to the amount of spice you need.
16. Enjoy!