This little Homemade Madras Curry Powder Masala is a must have in your home and a must tried spice mixture for your senses! Curry isn’t always Curry. That is what I have learned in my life! This little “wisdom” might sound confusing to you, yet it is correct. Why? Well, I ll tell you how I came to that conclusion…
Every year, I and my family would travel to France to visit our relatives there and every year we would take the German roads towards our other home. While roaming in Germany we would of course take a Highway break and have lunch. My mum had prepared sandwiches, salads and hard boiled eggs for the long car drive, so we would actually never buy any food in some of the resting stations. I was very fussy and I would not eat any meat from another country but only from my beloved Austria, so German food ingredients tasted to me oddly weird, kind of artificial. But one fine day I broke and I had something called a Currywurst (Curry Sausage).
It was phenomenal but so strangely hot and spicy. I didn’t understand the pungent sauce on my sausage, yet I devoured it in one go. That must have been my first experience with spicy food (I didn’t count in the goulash!), little I knew back then that this was just the beginning and that this sausage was the lightest dish in spice amount that I would come across!
The Currywurst is a very popular Fast food dish in Germany. You will never see this in another German speaking country such as Austria or Switzerland. The sauce’s core ingredient is the Curry powder. If you mention curry to a German, he will think of a Curry sausage dish.
In my trip to India I was expecting this Curry powder to be the star in all dishes. I was so wrong! I ordered a Curry and got an extremely beyond belief fire devil hot liquid Sauce with rice. No sausage, no tickling sensation and no returning memory that would remind me of a familiar flavor. You might recall that the Indian spices were not my food forte at that time, at least that’s what I learned due to the Curry disappointment, I hated them and the strong smelling Indian dishes. It was a disaster and that’s when my food problem started because the same curry was the cause for one of my first food poisonings in India.
Yet I was still on the look out for the Curry powder. Later on in Goa I realized that local families had no curry powder in their pantries, but they would have a curry plant in their garden! What the ****!?
Nowadays I figured it all out! The curry plant leafs are used in Indian Curries. The Curry powder is a Spice mixture, a Masala which seems to have originated in the South of India, in Madras, and which somehow found its way to Germany, where one lady in the 50s found some use in it by throwing it into a Sausage sauce.
That’s called food evolution irony!
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Actually, curry powder is a British invention. Which is why you never find it in India.
What gorgeous pictures and I love the color of the curry powder! Great story about curries! I knew that curry powder was a blend of some type but still thought it was used in Indian cuisine. Now I know I was wrong. Loved the part about eating curry in India and meeting the “fire devil”. Cute.
I do love your blend! You’ve introduced me to a couple of new chillis that I’ll have to look up. I may or may not be able to find them here. I’m sure your blend FAR surpasses the bottled stuff I buy off the grocery shelf. Great post!
I’ve heard of Currywurst but never had one. Sounds like something I’d enjoy! Good recipe for Madras Curry Powder. I often use this when I’m cooking Chinese dishes – it’s a kitchen staple for me. (When I cook Indian I usually just mix my own masala.) Good stuff – thanks.
If we eat use more curry powder I’d totally make it from scratch. It sounds fun and my friend does make her own curry powder too. It’s nice to adjust to your family’s taste!
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