UNROASTED SRI LANKAN CURRY POWDER

You can of course buy curry powders and pastes, but you do miss out on a lot on the flavours, and, of course this way, you can almost design one of your own to suit your tastes. Apparently unroasted powders are used mostly in vegetable dishes, whereas the roasted varieties are used in meat and fish dishes

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon uncooked  basmati rice

50g coriander seeds

25g cumin seeds

25g fennel seeds

7.5cm cinnamon stick

1 1/2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

3 dried red Kashmiri chillies

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

METHOD

Heat a small, heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat.

Add the uncooked rice and shake it around until it is lightly golden.

Tip it into a small bowl and leave to cool.

Then mix in the spices, dried chillies and turmeric powder and grind everything into a fine powder. I did mine in an electric coffee grinder that I use solely for spices.

Store in an air-tight container. Use within 3 months.