The weather here has been beautiful, though the nights have been less so, and have been driving down the water temps. Since I spend a lot of my time during the week in the water, I feel the cold.

Last week, when the wife got home, she offered to make a nice hot meal to help warm me up, Coconut Chicken Curry, one of my favorites. As she gathered the ingredients, she realized that we had no curry powder. Crud. I was going to end up eating tomato soup again, NOT my favorite!

Thinking about all of the spices I had recently put up, I thought I may be able to make my own curry powder. So I did a little research, and found that there are about as many different recipes for curry powder as there are regions that eat curry. Taking the research, I gathered some of my spices and did some quick tests, mixed together a couple versions, tried them out, and eventually came up with this:

 Hillbilly Curry Powder

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons whole coriander
1 teaspoon dried turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or better still, the hot pepper blend below), more or less to taste

Mix everything together, then run it all through a food processor or a Bullet (our favorite go-to option for blending and chopping) until a coarse powder. While I was making my “final” batch, I opted to make it all without the cayenne at first, to have some for our youngest, who hasn’t built up her immunity to capsaicin yet, and then after setting some of the “mild” curry powder aside, I added in the heat for the Big People curry powder….

The flavor of the end product was not like the store-bought jar we usually use. My version had body, a robustness that allowed me to enjoy each individual flavor of the spices as they worked together and with the other flavors in the dish. It made for a mighty fine curry.

We’ll not be buying curry powder anymore.

Making your Own Pepper Flakes

Speaking of adding heat, I love adding red pepper flakes to my food. I love the heat, but I rarely find a version at the store that has much flavor, or sometimes, even heat. Nothing like adding cardboard sprinkles to your meal

So about once a year, I go out to the local ethnic stores, and buy as many different dried peppers as I can find. I can usually find whole dried anchos, arboles, cayennes,  smoky chipotles and New Mexico red chile. For my last batch, I added in habaneros that I threaded on string then hung them up to dry. I only added two of these, even I have my limits!

I would use more of my own dried peppers, but I simply don’t grow the variety I want to add into this end product. If you can grow and dry your own, so much the better! Whatever you do, make sure that you use at least four different dried peppers, I find the more variety, the better the end product.

I remove the stems as much of the seeds as possible, then chop them in a food processor in small batches. Once everything is processed, I miss it all in a large bowl to distribute the various peppers evenly. I then pass them through various grades of sifters, from coarse to fine, giving myself a fine sprinkling powder to be used while cooking, a more coarse powder (similar to chili powder) that I use for my chili, and finally, the large flakes for general sprinkle it on food like salt and pepper while on my plate.

I usually make about a gallon bag worth at a time, and it lasts about a year, even with handing out samples to family and friends. Everyone that has tasted it agrees that it has a very complex flavor, a better level of heat, and is far better than anything they’ve ever purchased in the store. Like everything else, this too is better when it is home made.

To store, I put it in bags or jars and vacuum seal it, then store it in the freezer to prolong the heat and flavor. I don’t know if it really does affect anything, but I like to think that it does.

Let me warn you, do this when you can open the windows. Better still, do it outside, and stand up wind of the processor! And when you are done, strip your clothes off, throw them in the washing machine, and then jump into the shower yourself. Don’t touch your face, eyes, or any other sensitive parts before you wash with soap and water.

Ask me how I know!

Peace,
db