Curry, The Great Lie

Forget what you have been told.  There is no such thing as curry.  At least, not in India.  It is an entirely western concept that came about from attempting to capitalize on the exotic novelty of foreign food.  Similarly, curry powder was made up by spice merchants for the exact same reason.  It is not the powder of some sort of "curry seed" (there ARE curry leaves, but that's another story), nor is it one specific spice blend.  It is, in fact, pretty much whatever you want it to be.  However, we've gotten so used to it in the west that it's sold in stores as a pretty standardized product.

While curry isn't an Indian concept, it is certainly one that the rest of the world has embraced wholeheartedly.  The biggest example is Thai curries, which are traditional dishes called "kaeng" in Thai.  There's also Jamaican curry powder, which is the same thing as normal curry powder but with the locally grown allspice added.  Japan eats quite a lot of curry, but they recognize it as a western dish brought to them by the British.  So while you'll find curry has pervaded the world, it's still not a word familiar to Indians.

The word curry comes from the Tamil (a southern Indian and Sri Lankan people with a language dating back thousands of years) word "kari" meaning sauce or condiment.  The British East India Trading Company traded with spice merchants who sold them "kari powder" and the word stuck as a bit of a catch all for local foods.

If you wanted a close cultural analog, garam masala is a northern Indian all purpose spice mix.  What gets sold over here as curry powder is very different and much more complex.  If you'd like to make your own, I've included a basic recipe I've found that should do the trick.

How to make your own curry powder.

Since curry powder is a fake concept, I figured the most appropriate recipe I could give would be from a very fake person.  So, please enjoy this Martha Stewart chickpea curry recipe.

It's hard to talk too much about what curry powder tastes like since the ingredients vary pretty wildly, but in general you'll see a lot of cumin, coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves and hot pepper.  It is most often used in dishes that have the word "curry" in the title.  The smell that hits you when you walk into an Indian restaurant is what it imbues.  It may not be the most authentic thing in the world, but don't let that stop you from using it.  Is it a blend of spices that tastes good in your food?  That's the real question for me.