Curry Beef: Trinidad: Preparation

The Ultimate Curry Bible by Madhur Jaffrey is a fantastic book if you like curries at all. Think… Indian food; but she doesn't just cover India she does curries from all over the world. I wanted an excuse to use some (okay, one) of my habanero chilies and broke out the bible.

This was not going to be too easy; before I could start with the recipe I had to make three of the ingredients: hot curry powder, roasted cumin seeds and amchar masala (a spice mixture). Or just buy this stuff at the store if you can find it.

Hot Curry Powder
Ingredients:

• 3 t whole brown mustard seeds (or black)
• 4 t whole peppercorns (black ones; in my case I used a mix of dried black, brown, red and green)
  
• 2 T whole cumin seeds
• 4 T whole coriander seeds
• 11 whole cloves (or 10 or 12 or something)
  
• 6 dried hot red chilies (less if you're cautious about "hot" chilies - but do not omit)
  

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• 2 t whole fenugreek seeds
• 2 t ground turmeric

Procedure:

1. In a small heavy frying pan lightly toast the first 6 ingredients until some of them change color and they develop a "roasted" smell; over medium heat
   
2. Remove from the heat
3. Add the fenugreek and turmeric
4. Stir for 10 seconds
5. Remove from pan & cool
6. Grind finely
7. - Done -

Notes:

1. Fenugreek, turmeric and cloves are what really make a curry.
2. Madhur Jaffrey advises fanatics to add ½ to 1 teaspoon of chili powder (not for me)
   

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Roasted Cumin Seeds

• 3 T whole Cumin Seeds

1. Roast in a small heavy frying pan until toasty and full of aroma; over medium heat
2. Remove from pan & cool
   
3. Grind finely
4. - Done - Dead easy, wasn't it?

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Amchar Masala
Ingredients:

• 1 t whole brown mustard seeds (or black)
• 2 t whole peppercorns (black ones; in my case I used a mix of dried black, brown, red and green)
  
• 2 T whole cumin seeds
• 4 T whole coriander seeds
• 1 t whole fenugreek seeds
• 1 t whole fennel seeds (this is the magic of this mixture)
  

Procedure:

1. Lightly roast in a small heavy frying pan over medium heat
2. Remove from pan & cool
3. Grind finely
4. - Done -

Notes:

1. I didn't have brown mustard seeds for this so I just put in a ¼ teaspoon of regular yellow (Gulden's) mustard powder (not a really good substitution but that's all I had available)

This roasting / toasting of the spices is one of the things that makes "Indian" food a little unique.

Luckily I have all these unusual seeds in house all the time so I was ready to go. Once these three things made I could actually go off and consider making the curry; which is actually quite easy and will be in the next post (since this one is starting to drag on for a bit).