{"id":5695,"date":"2018-08-08T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=5695"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:58:41","slug":"sri-lankan-roasted-curry-powder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/08\/sri-lankan-roasted-curry-powder\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 8, 2018<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Most historians of cooking claim that curry powders are legacies of the European colonization of South and Southeast Asia.\u00a0 \u00a0I don\u2019t doubt that this is partially true but I think the reality is much more nuanced.<\/p>\n

The word \u201ccurry\u201d is believed to come from the Tamil word \u201ckari,\u201d meaning sauce.\u00a0 Now, however, the term is applied to a range of dishes from a wide swath of South and Southeast Asian countries, not just to dishes from India.<\/p>\n

What constitutes a \u201ccurry powder?\u201d\u00a0 Does it take multiple spices and herbs or just more than one?<\/p>\n

In Sri Lankan cooking, for example, the combination of coriander and cumin in a two-to-one mixture is commonly used in many dishes.\u00a0 This is so much the case, that Nanacy Rajapakse, who taught me Sri Lankan cooking, suggested that I make the mix and have it available for use as needed.<\/p>\n

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I think we can generally acknowledge that \u201ccurry\u201d as we use the term in the Western world, is really a Western construct.\u00a0 It usually refers to a generously spiced dish cooked in liquid, though the liquid may be (mostly) boiled away in some cases to make a “dry” curry.\u00a0 The word \u201ccurry\u201d (or translational equivalent) may not figure into the name of a given dish in the local language but when rendered in English, I suspect, the word \u201ccurry\u201d is often used in the name of a dish to signify the general concept.<\/p>\n

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An array of Sri Lankan dishes. The darker beef and pork dishes make use of roasted curry powder.<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether commonly prepared spice blends used in these countries actually constitute \u201ccurry powders\u201d is a matter of definition and whether or not these spice blends pre-date, or are a result of, European influence is up for debate.\u00a0 Even when curry powders or pastes are used, my experience is that other herbs and spices are almost always added to fine tune the taste of a dish.\u00a0 In South and Southeast Asian cooking, it would be rare to rely on curry powder alone to flavor a dish.<\/p>\n

Clearly, however, the way spice blends are used in South and Southeast Asia differs from the way \u201ccurry powder\u201d is used the Western cooking, whether the curry powder is used to impart an interesting flavor to an otherwise Western dish (like deviled eggs, for example) or to create a Western version of an Asian dish (like a generic \u201ccurry\u201d found in so many cookbooks that predate the last 20 years, or so).<\/p>\n

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In addition to the coriander-cumin blend noted above, Sri Lankan cuisine makes use of roasted curry powder for meat dishes and unroasted curry powder for vegetable dishes.<\/p>\n

Though the spices for many \u201ccurries\u201d are cooked in oil at the start, the roasted curry powder of Sri Lanka is different.\u00a0 It produces a depth of flavor that is completely different from that which can be obtained by simply frying the raw spices and herbs at the beginning of cooking.\u00a0 While it\u2019s easy to pull together different spices individually for each non-meat dish that might otherwise use an unroasted curry powder, one cannot replicate the taste of roasted curry powder without actually roasting it.\u00a0 There really is no substitute for roasted curry powder if one wants to make traditional Sri Lankan food.<\/p>\n

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A curry leaf plant.\u00a0 The leaves are very fragrant.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are several dishes planned for the coming months that make use of roasted curry powder.\u00a0 Today\u2019s recipe is the starting point for those recipes.\u00a0 If\u00a0 you have any interest in Sri Lankan, or South Asian, cooking you won\u2019t be disappointed in whipping up a batch of this curry powder.

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Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder<\/h2>\n
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Roasted curry powder is used in Sri Lanka for meat dishes. It brings a depth of flavor that cannot be achieved by any other means.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>10 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>25 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>35 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>1<\/span> cup<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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