What is curry powder?!
What is curry powder?
Okay so I'm Indian and have been eating indian cooking all my life. I've been cooking dal for like 5 years and I assume dal is what everybody keeps calling curry. What exactly is curry powder that (white) people keep talking about. I've never used and I ask my Indian friends and they have never used it. So what is it exactly and who uses it and why?
Answers: Ironically, Indians are the only ones who dont use curry powder! If you ask a desi what curry powder is, they'll say something that "umricans or brits" use to cook. But it makes EVERYTHING taste the same!
It's a British concotion of spices, so they can pretend to make Indian food. Most people assume all Indian food is curry or curry based. They are not familiar with all the daals, kadhis, sabjis, bhajis...
PS: Since I was born in the UK, I can make that comment --- so no crap about it (or me) not being PC! Curry powder came about when the Brits attempted to make a "masala" style flavor for easy home cooking with indian flavors. Basically...a spice mix. no dal is not curry
its curry if you know what that is- just made into a powder
hence the name- ground up curry powder used to make curry A Curry does not necessarily contain curry powder. Curry powder is in fact a blend of spices, varying according to regional preferences or traditions. As a result, there are literally thousands of "curry powders", each of which was uniquely suited for the produce and tastes of the region it developed in.
Indians tend to use garam masala (another type of curry powder, of which there are also many incantations) the way people in the west use curry powder. An exception is in the south they have developed a mixture called "sambhar powder" that is quite different from garam masala.
Actually, the word curry is derived from the south Indian word curriel, which was used in the local language (Tamil) for a fish stew that had tamarind and curry leaves (which is where these leaves also get their name even in local languages). This was then picked up and transformed into the present "curry" by the British. The word "curry", in its English sense, has no direct translation into any to India's fifteen languages, and Indians do not use the term even when speaking English. I think that the "blend of spices" used to make "curry" is the masala.
I think when people say curry, they are talking about "potato curry" or "chicken curry", not dal. Curry is a blend of Indain spices.
Check this out - I hope it will help
http://store.indianfoodsco.com/infopage.... Sorri Desi, not sure where you were in the UK, when you left or how old you were when you left, but raised in the west of scotland I have been quite familiar with all you mention for at least somewhere between 25-30 years... before that I really only ate with my folks who were very conservative eaters.
However, agree in as much that curry powder belongs to those who cook with ready made sauces in jars etc Friend, curry powder is a mixture of a few indian spices. I guess it is prepared and marketed just for convenience of people who want Indian food taste.
You could call it a type of garam masala.