Curry powder originated during the historical spice trade route for use in the Western world, and differs greatly from the curries (the dishes, not the powder) that you might be familiar with, which use a sometimes staggering array of whole spices that are ground just before cooking.

Meanwhile, the bright yellow supermarket curry powder you may be familiar with has developed a terrible reputation for being blandly mixed and old on the shelf. For many people it is heresy to use when trying to make curry at home.

Surprise!

You can make tons of stuff with good curry powder
Armed with the glory of fresh spices, here are a bunch of curry powder recipes that are delicious, straightforward and easily added into your daily repertoire.

Don’t get hung up on notions of authenticity when it comes to cooking, instead, make good food! As a Chinese friend said recently on Facebook, “If I’m cooking Italian from scratch, doesn’t that make it Chinese?” Indeed.

Does curry need coconut milk?
No, but it definitely needs oil. Otherwise it is gritty and unappealing. Curry certainly is delicious with coconut milk, as well as stock, tomatoes, cream, yogurt, mayo or butter. In these curry puffs, the curry preparation is “dry” and has none of those.

Curry likes it hot
Chili pepper (cayenne, jalepeno, habanero, etc), black pepper, mustard and ginger all work well. For example, curry and your favorite prepared mustard and mayo will all love each other.

Many curry recipes will also call for components of curry powder, ie additional turmeric, cumin, coriander etc, in much the same way that chili recipes call for extra cumin, cayenne, etc. But, it’s not a crime if you have curry powder and a recipe calls for an additional teaspoon of cumin, you can get by without it. A great, fresh curry powder will be just fine in lots of cases.

Unfortunately the curry powder, and other spices, that you can get from your local supermarket may not be very fresh to start with.