It's all in the Spices

It took me a long time to figure out the importance of curry powders. I knew there were two kinds - the roasted and the unroasted. The roasted is blackish-brown and when added gives a similar shade to the dishes. The unroasted curry powder is a mix of green, yellow and light brown and I just used to add a sprinkling to any curry that I didn't already put the roasted curry powder.

I used to buy whatever ready-made packet available on the shelf, put into any old container and use it for months on end. Needless to say, my curries lacked life. I just couldn't figure it out... I followed the exact recipe, I changed the recipe, I modified the recipe, I added a pinch of curry powder, I added a spoonful of curry powder, I omitted the curry powder, I increased and decreased other base ingredients like onion and coconut milk, I asked Shiranthi to show me how she does it... I tried everything, but still my curries lacked life. At best my curries were alright, but never great. Eventually I gave up using unroasted curry powder as it really had no effect on my cooking.

Life thus went on with my lackluster cooking until my mother gave me a jar of home-made roasted curry powder. It may look the same as the shop bought curry powders, but its fragrance was awesome. When I opened the air-tight jar, the wonderful smells of the spices took my breath away and had my appetite already on gear and I've not even started cooking!!!

Like a thunderbolt strike, I suddenly understood the purpose of curry powders. Curry powders are not some arbitary base ingredient - it is both the perfume and the makeup of the dish. After I understood that this was not just any powder, I began to find out more about curry powders and what I found really amazed me.

Actually, curry powders had never been used in cooking proper Asian food. We had used all these wonderful spices that grew in our backyard like cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, pepper and so on. It is the wily British who came in the guise of friends and ended up colonizing Sri Lanka that came up with the idea of curry powders.

They were totally fascinated by our curries and wanted to replicate it back home. However, been fasidious about efficiency they instead of grinding various spices as required for each dish, grounded it into a powder and mixed it all up. For a long time, even for the British, curry powders were nothing more than ground turmeric, which made the curries yellow, but did nothing for the flavor. As time went by, Sri Lankans as they got married more and more to Western influences got into the habit of using a mix of spice powders than properly preparing the spices as required for the dish, though thankfully were never duped into using only turmeric powder.

This lesson on spices and curry powders was another reminder that I'm just a colonized product, but luckily with enough curiosity-dominated genes to look for my roots!!!