Topic: Mix powder containing curry powder

[NagaMark]

Hi guys. I have been cooking authentic Indian for the last 19 years but I'm reasonably new to the BIR cooking. I have dabbled with it in the past, but I always got fed up of making the base. I can knock up a base, but I am curious why the mix powder that is mentioned has to contain curry powder. I never buy curry powder so I was wondering if anyone makes this stuff without the addition of curry powder, and if so, what are the results.

Cheers guys.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I almost never use curry powder, Mark, although I did make a curry a couple of months ago that used nothing but, and it was fine if a bit bland.  My normal spices are ground chilli (degghi mirch and/or Kashmiri mirch), cumin and ground fenugreek, but for a greater depth of flavour I augment the chilli with Bassar curry masala (which is about as unlike a normal curry powder as you can get).

** Phil.

[George]

I am curious why the mix powder that is mentioned has to contain curry powder.

Welcome to the forum. Most mix powder recipes on this site contain curry powder because that's what we believe most BIRs to do. I believe it's as simple as that. Since we're trying to emulate BIR cuisine, we just follow suit.

[NagaMark]

I almost never use curry powder, Mark, although I did make a curry a couple of months ago that used nothing but, and it was fine if a bit bland.  My normal spices are ground chilli (degghi mirch and/or Kashmiri mirch), cumin and ground fenugreek, but for a greater depth of flavour I augment the chilli with Bassar curry masala (which is about as unlike a normal curry powder as you can get).

** Phil.

Thanks, Phil.

I am curious why the mix powder that is mentioned has to contain curry powder.

Welcome to the forum. Most mix powder recipes on this site contain curry powder because that's what we believe most BIRs to do. I believe it's as simple as that. Since we're trying to emulate BIR cuisine, we just follow suit.

Yeah, George, I hear ya!! I was just curious if anyone had come up with a mix that doesn't use curry powder. Looking at some of the mix recipes and the ingredients in a curry powder (lets say rajah)...there only appears to be a few spices missing in the ingredients before the addition of curry powder - fenugreek, bengal gram (which I imagine could be substituted with basan), mustard and salt. I will try knocking up a mix powder that uses no curry powder and I will post the recipe and results.

Thanks for replying, guys.

[Ramirez]

I almost never use curry powder, Mark, although I did make a curry a couple of months ago that used nothing but, and it was fine if a bit bland.  My normal spices are ground chilli (degghi mirch and/or Kashmiri mirch), cumin and ground fenugreek, but for a greater depth of flavour I augment the chilli with Bassar curry masala (which is about as unlike a normal curry powder as you can get).

** Phil.

No ground turmeric or coriander, Phil?

[Peripatetic Phil]

No ground turmeric or coriander, Phil?

Not in the curry proper, Ramirez, but turmeric in the base.  If I pre-cook the chicken (which I do less frequently these days), that also involves turmeric.  Ground coriander I used to add, but when I tried to identify the key elements I decided it was not one of those, and now just add it when I want intentional flavour variation; but fresh coriander stems are a key ingredient, I believe.

But to address the real underlying question : "why do so many mix powders include curry powder, when they already include many of the contents of a curry powder", I too have always found this strange (particularly in coming from a KD background, in which curry powder plays no part) but in the context of a restaurant kitchen, where a large number of different dishes have to be prepared, it is reasonable to think of the curry powder as providing the bass notes, and the individual spices as providing the melody.

** Phil.

[George]

Yeah, George, I hear ya!! I was just curious if anyone had come up with a mix that doesn't use curry powder. Looking at some of the mix recipes and the ingredients in a curry powder (lets say rajah)...there only appears to be a few spices missing in the ingredients before the addition of curry powder

I share your bewilderment (if that's your position) over why curry powder is used and then has the balance altered by the addition of further ingredients, most of which are already in the curry powder. It seems a strange approach but if it produces the BIR flavours we love, why question it, or try and improve on what 1000s of BIRs do, by blending your own mix, just to be different? There are so many unknowns in trying to produce superior BIR flavours - so many other other things to be working on - why bother opening this aspect that's more or less agreed, signed-off and put to bed.

[noble ox]

There are some questions that need a good answer..........not just guess-work
I have read many recipes here where for example coriander is used in the base then mix powder then curry powder also cumin etc
Why? Can anyone answer who knows the reason
It defies logic

[NagaMark]

I share your bewilderment (if that's your position) over why curry powder is used and then has the balance altered by the addition of further ingredients, most of which are already in the curry powder. It seems a strange approach but if it produces the BIR flavours we love, why question it, or try and improve on what 1000s of BIRs do, by blending your own mix, just to be different? There are so many unknowns in trying to produce superior BIR flavours - so many other other things to be working on - why bother opening this aspect that's more or less agreed, signed-off and put to bed.

I fully understand what you are saying, but I will not be making that many BIR curries, so the only use I will have for a curry powder would me to make the mix powder. I was just curious if anyone had made mix powder without the curry powder for that reason only, not to be different.

[spiceyokooko]

Why? Can anyone answer who knows the reason
It defies logic

I don't know with 100% certainty why it's common practice, but I'm pretty confident of understanding why it's done.

It's expediency.

We need to remember that most BIR's and T/A's are working on a time/cost/profit basis, in other word's they're being run as a business to produce profit and they will always take any shortcuts or cut any corners they can whilst still producing an acceptable end product. Why buy in and keep in stock all the minor ingredients found in most commercial curry powders when you can just dollop in a couple of tablespoons of commercial curry powder and the problem is solved? It's quicker and cheaper to do it that way - and that's why they do it.

But it's also one of the reasons that most if not all BIR's and T/A's will produce a standard 'flavour' that pervades most of the dishes that originate from that particular BIR or T/A.

As home cooks, we are not commercially constrained in the same way as BIR's run for profits are and there's no reason whatsoever why we should be following this practice at all. Particularly when you consider most of us will have in stock all the minor ingredients usually found in Commercial Curry Powder anyway.

It's interesting that NagaMark comes from the same background as I do - traditional, authentic Indian cuisine, where generic curry powders simply aren't used - and asks precisely the same question I did when I first arrived here. If we can produce great tasting (albeit not in the BIR style) Indian dishes without using generic curry powders, why suddenly in trying to replicate BIR dishes do we have to use it?

In my opinion (and it is only my opinion, anyone else is perfectly free to disagree with it) the BIR flavour is produced via cooking technique as long as the correct spices are used in conjunction with it. The use of generic commercial curry powders and/or garam masala is yet another dogmatic 'red herring'.