RECIPE: Vadouvan Curry Powder

If you saw this post on Carrots with Vadouvan Spice and Yogurt you know I've been looking for a homemade recipe for the vadouvan spice blend.  This article at Serious Eats lists several places where you can purchase it, but I wanted to mix my own with organic ingredients. 

There were several recipes for the spice mixture that appealed to me - with my criteria being a good number of different spices which I thought would result in a more complex flavor.  These are the two I decided to make:

Simple Dry VADOUVAN curry powder

Makes about 1/2 cup 

Original recipe:  DRY Vadouvan Curry Powder

• 1 t. fenugreek seeds 
• 2 t. cumin seeds
• 1 T. coriander seeds
• 1 t. ground turmeric
• 20 FRESH curry leaves
• 1 T. brown mustard seeds
• 2 t. dried chili flakes (I used Kashmiri)
• 1 t. salt flakes
• 1/2 t. black peppercorns

Toast all ingredients until fragrant, cool, then grind to a powder in a spice grinder.  Store in a sealed glass container.   

I used this mix to make Vadouvan Carrot and Yogurt Dip and it was FANTASTIC!  

Complex WET VADOUVAN curry

Vadouvan WET CURRY

Makes 12 2-inch balls

   Original recipe: WET Vadouvan Curry Balls

• 1 T. cumin
• 2 t. salt
• 2 t. ground coriander
• 2 t. turmeric
• 1 t. ground fenugreek
• 1 t. ground cardamom
• 1 t. sugar
• 1 t. yellow mustard seeds
• 1/2 t. fennel seeds
• 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 t. cayenne pepper (I used kashmiri)
• 1/2 t. black pepper
• 2 cloves, ground
• ghee for frying
• 2 pounds shallots finely chopped
• 12 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated
• 1 T. finely chopped fresh curry leaves 

Toast the dry spices over medium-high heat until fragrant.  Remove them from the pan and set aside.

Add the oil to the pan, add the remaining ingredients ( shallots, garlic, ginger and curry leaves) and saute on low heat for 30 minutes.

Sauteing the alliums

Return the dry spices to the pan and saute for 10 minutes.

Adding the spices

Preheat the oven to 275F.

Line a baking pan with parchment and thinly spread out the onion-spice mixture.

Roast at this low heat for 2 hours, then cool and shape into balls using about 2 T. per ball.  If you won't be using them right away, they freeze well.  (I put mine directly into ice cube trays and froze them.)

Vadouvan curry ball (2 T.)

 

 

This curry smell HEAVENLY!  It isn't hard to make, but it does take more time, and mincing 2 pounds of shallots was a labor of love (next time I'll use the food processor)!  Two pounds of (organic) shallots was also quite expensive.  She says you can use red onions instead, but think that will adversely affect the flavor. If you must, I would use sweet onions instead, and only replace half the shallots. 

I used one ball to make Carrots with Vadouvan Spice and Yogurt and we inhaled it!

Next week, I am going to made a dry powder of the spices in this recipe and see how it compares to the dry recipe above.  I may also add some DRY shallot, garlic, ginger, and curry leaf powder and compare that, too.

Another recipe from Feast Magazine.

Another recipe from Ludo Lefebvre which, interestingly, does not have any curry spices.

Another recipe from Le Creuset. 

And another recipe from Tasting Table with several suggestions on how to use it.

Le Sanctuaire Vadouvan adds onion, shallots and garlic to their house bland curry powder and states that it's a powerful blend to be used sparingly.  the one-pound size costs $92 and there is a waiting list!  

RECIPE: How to clean and store fresh curry leaves

As you know, we love Indian food!  Many recipes call for curry leaves, preferably fresh, which aren't available locally.  I did see one blogger say she had a curry plant she keeps in her kitchen, which I will look into. but that may not be a viable option in New England.

Fortunately, I was able to buy FRESH ORGANIC curry leaves on Amazon, shipped to me from a small farm in Arizona.  I'm not sharing the link because the seller is out of stock now, but there are other sellers.  Just be sure you buy fresh, not dried.  Dried organic curry leaves are available from Pure Indian Foods but the fresh ones have more flavor.

Fresh curry leaves (keep the stems, they have lots of flavor)

How to Clean and Store Fresh Curry Leaves

THIS INSTAGRAM POST shows you how to clean them and freeze them.  

Following her instructions, I removed the leaves from the stems (keeping the stems as they have lots of flavor).  A few (very few) of the leaves I received were damaged - I threw those leaves out.

I rinsed the leaves in a bowl of water, drained them in a sieve, and dried them on multiple changes of paper towels until they were DRY.

Fresh Curry leaves, washed (on the left) and drying on paper towels (on the right)

 

I then stored them 4 different ways:

• plain in a small glass container in the fridge, 
• coated with oil and then wrapped in paper towels in the fridge, 
• coated with oil, wrapped in parchment-lined foil and then frozen in a freezer bag.  
• I stored the stems in a small plastic bag in the fridge.  

From left to right: coated with oil, wrapped in paper towels, wrapped in parchment-foil

One month later, the stems had some mold on them.  I scrubbed them clean and used them to make dal.  Next time I will freeze the stems.

The leaves coated with oil and stored in the fridge were starting to turn black in spots.  I threw out the bad leaves and used the rest in dal.

The  uncoated leaves stored in a glass container fared the best.  Next time, I will store more of them that way.  

I haven't yet used the frozen leaves.  I'll report back when I do.