Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder

We've just come back from a week's road trip in Northern Germany. Actually we didn't go very far but we did see a lot of cool things. But a week on the road creates a craving for rice and curry when we get home. We did have some really good Indian food in Bremen but Indian is not the same as Sri Lankan and definitely not the same as home cooked.

As I was cooking up some beans and dahl for lunch I realized that I was out of Sri Lankan roasted curry powder! Now this is a bit of a disaster since although we have plenty of Sri Lankan stores for some reason they don't stock Sri Lankan curry powders. So I figured I was going to have to make it from scratch. I dived into my cookery book from Kandalama Hotel because their food is so great so must be their curry powder. Plus the editor of the book and I used to go to school together and her mum made superb curries. But unfortunately there was no recipe to be found.
My second choice was a recipe book that my mother received as a wedding present from my fathers cousin. My mum being Swiss needed all the help she could get with curries! Here's what I found and let me tell you this recipe is super easy to make. I don't know what I've been afraid of all these years. Nothing beats fresh curry powder.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp.	Raw rice
2 inch	Cinnamon
3	Cloves
2 tbsp.	Coriander seeds
2 sprigs	Curry leaves
1 tsp.	Pepper seeds
3	Cardamoms
1 tbsp.	Cumin seeds (suduru)
1 tsp.	Mustard seeds

Method:

Frying up the stuff was super easy. I pulled out my favourite frying pan which is a heavy Calphalon anodized aluminium one. I love this pan. I thought it was dying so I bought a new regular aluminium one that came highly recommended and cost an arm and a leg. But that sits at the bottom of the cupboard and is only used in emergencies. My old one hasn't crapped out yet and is wonderful. 

With the pan on medium heat (do not use a non-stick pan and no oil) I tipped in the rice and let it cook for about 1 minute. It had to be stirred all the time but this wasn't a problem since it only took a little bit. Then I added in the cinnamon, cloves, coriander, pepper seeds and cardamoms. Looks like I forgot to put the curry leaves in, Oops!! But if you do use them now would be the time to put them in. I let these fry for another minute (stirring all the time) and then added in the rest of the ingredients. Again keeping stirring. At some point I think my pan got too hot so I just took it off the stove and kept stirring. 

Oh did it smell delicious. I must admit not as delicious as my aunts curry power but pretty good none the less. Once everything was roasted (about 3-4 minutes later) I turned the spices out into a bowl. If you keep them in the pan they will keep on roasting and most likely burn so it makes sense to tip them into another container. 

Finally, the moment of truth, can I grind them as fine as I would like. Usually I'm not successful but this time my Sumeet managed to grind the spices into a fine powder. I ended up with about 4 tablespoons full of curry powder. To be used shortly in my egg plant curry (the egg plant is currently frying hence I have time to write this!), dahl and TVP curries which we will enjoy with some string hoppers and kiri hodi this evening.