Homemade South Indian Style Fish Curry Powder

In the past when I was young, my mother used to grind all her spice powder in flour mill. The taste of homemade spice powder is really different from the store bought ones. She had had religiously bought the spices every six months, sun dried them, sent to the mill and brought them back home, allowed them to cool in open air before storing. The process was very lengthy, but the end result was really satisfying. As she grew older, she no longer had the same passion that once she cultivated. Therefore, it has been passed down to me as I am also quite fond of preparing homemade spice powder and pickles. I can be very happy that the ingredients that go into the end product are safe for our family consumption, and there is a sort satisfaction preparing something on your own. You will you are the master in your kitchen. Homemade South Indian Style Fish Curry Powder as the name implied is a must have curry powder in every Indian household. This powder is so versatile that you can use to make any seafood curry, vegetarian tamarind based curry and you can also add it to your stir fried vegetables.

Homemade South Indian Style Fish Curry Powder

INGREDIENTS:

Dry red chilies - 300g

Coriander seeds - 500g

Cumin - 25g

Black peppercorns - 25g

Fenugreek - 25g

Toor dal - 50g

Channa dal - 50g

Raw rice - 3 tablespoons

Fennel seeds - 3 tablespoons

METHOD :

1. Dry roast coriander seeds, black peppercorns, fenugreek, fennel seeds and cumin seeds individually one by one until they release the spice aroma and hot to touch.  

2. Fenugreek has to be dry roasted till it change deep brown color. That gives nice aroma.

3. The raw rice is dry roasted till slightly puffy. 

3. Dry red chilies has to be sun dried because they tend to get burned when fried in a pan. So, we want to retain the red color of the chilies, but allow them to crisp up so that the spice powder will have longer shelf life and easy to grind too. 

4. Next, dry roast all the dal varieties until golden brown.

6. Add all the roasted spices into a blender and grind well. Make sure the powder is fine. Let the powder cool before storing.

7. I would only grind small batches of spice powder because it will be still fresh and flavorful. 

7. Store in an air tight container and later refrigerate. 

6. We can use homemade fish curry powder to make spicy and tangy fish curry. 

Thank you

Abby