Curry powder is a phenomenon that has spread to every corner of the globe – except India. Tom Norrington-Davies explains why he sometimes prefers it to freshly ground spices.
I started my love affair with Indian food, like so many of my friends, during the 1980s.
Madhur Jaffrey was the reason. Her first book, and the accompanying TV series, were revolutionary.
Although
Indian food was already popular in the UK, few of its fans knew much
about the mind-bogglingly eclectic spices that characterise cooking on
the Subcontinent. Once we were armed with our first jars of cumin and
coriander seeds, or knew how to make a garam masala, we had a culinary
public enemy. It was curry powder.
Curry
powder’s very existence is probably based on a misunderstanding.
Indians do not use it at all, and yet it is now a global phenomenon. In
countries with little else in common, any dish with a taste of
Indian-ish spices is described as curried. The Japanese love ‘curry’ as
do the Caribbeans.
The root word is possibly ‘kari’, a braised
dish eaten in south-east Asia. Now, we know that there are karis,
bhajis, biryanis, and a billion other types of Indian dishes, but curry
became an easy catch-all to describe most of them.
As for the
powder: when former dwellers of colonial India came back to Blighty,
they brought with them blends of spices that they hoped would capture a
snapshot of the curries they had eaten overseas. Householders would
have seen their servants grinding spices, but could not have known the
intricacy with which this was done, nor realised that each batch was
freshly ground every mealtime. Curry powder was, thus, doomed to be the
poor cousin of real Indian cooking.
Not that this ever dented its popularity. Curry powder has been adopted
wherever the love of curry has travelled. I have come across its use in
China, Spain and Kenya. But the one place you see it less and less is
here. Waves of increasingly authentic blends of Indian herbs and spices
have seen to that.
But then, just as we are revelling in our new-found culinary know-how
when it comes to Bengali, Goan or Keralan cooking, nostalgia strikes.
And that’s why there is always a jar of curry powder at the back of my
spice cupboard. I know it isn’t the real thing. In fact, it is about as
exotic as fish and chips, and that’s why, every now and again, I want
to taste it.
Talking of fish and chips, a smidgeon of curry powder in the batter or
breadcrumbs takes fried fish to another dimension. Add a pinch to
scrambled eggs, it’s wonderful. And I hardly ever make root vegetable
soups without a hint of ‘curry’.
But these recipes are my favourite places to use curry powder. It is
intrinsic to the flavour of each one. And, appropriately, none of them
come from India!
Curry powder: buy or make?
Whichever curry powder you buy is best dictated by your love (or fear)
of chillies. There are hot, medium and mild blends about, so choose the
one you feel most comfy with – Sharwood’s Madras curry powder is my
pick of the shop-bought versions. Remember you can always add heat to a
curry powder, but it is impossible to remove it from a hot one!
If you have no fondness for commercial curry powders there are probably
two reasons. One is fenugreek, which dominates spice blends. The other
is turmeric, which dyes everything yellow and can taste bitter. Both
should be used in small quantities, but this often gets overlooked by
the big brands. My grandfather, who lived in the East, always ground
his own ‘curry powder’, and for me it is one of the tastes of my
childhood. I find it stands up well in these recipes, so here is the
blend.
Grandfather’s curry powder
recipe
Curry powder is a phenomenon that has spread to every corner of the
globe – except India. Tom's mixture is a great all
rounder.
Chicken curry puffs recipe
Based on a well-loved Thai recipe, these are like extremely flaky
samosas. You could make your own puff pastry but for those in a rush
look for a good, all-butter brand.
Devilled lamb chops
recipe
This is Anglo-Indian food at its finest. Grill the chops, or add them to a range of dishes for your next barbecue.
Vegetable curry recipe
This is an unusual dish with its mix of curry powder and coconut milk,
but it is a light and easy curry to prepare. It can also be frozen.