Curry powder is a spice blend based on South Asian cuisine. While it is often thought of as being invented by the British after spending time in India  the base ingredients of garlic, ginger and turmeric were first used in dishes in India almost 4,000 years before the Brits "colonized" India. Now there are an almost infinite variety of curry powders available and they are certainly not all created equal. Our Maharajah Curry Powder is our superior grade curry powder and many of our customers consider this to be the best curry powder with its gorgeous, full-bodied taste where just a little goes a long way.

What is Curry Exactly

We frequently have customers contacting us regarding spices or recipes that they have heard about (but not tried yet) or they had an amazing meal in a restaurant and would like to recreate it at home. One question we get frequently is "What is curry"? There seems to be a lot of confusion about curries and curry powders and what kind of curry powder to try and buy.

To Americans ‘Curry’ is identified with Indian food and ‘curry powder’ is believed to be the key flavoring ingredient. This is not correct as all Indian food doesn't contain a specific "curry powder". The seasoning is actually a blend of spices better known known in India as garam masala. This mixture of spices is added to some dishes to enhance the dish's aroma and flavor. Just about each family uses similar basic spices but each household has its own proportions and secret ingredients so that the end result will usually vary from home to home. The better the quality of the spices used, the tastier the garam masala and the resulting dish in which it is used.

Curries are a complex class of dishes, and a true curry has a specific blend of spices to match the ingredients and methods used in preparing that particular dish. Because of this in India cooks and serious curry aficionados in our country usually make their own blends on the fly for each meal, buying the spices whole and grinding them in a coffee grinder (or with a mortar and pestle). This is done so that flavors can be introduced at different times during the cooking process to build a more complex flavor.

Curry is actually the dish, not a spice or seasoning. To confuse matters even more we carry Curry Leaves which are used in various Indian and Cambodian dishes (but not in curry dishes). A Curry refers to the a gravy or sauce based dish of meat and rice. The meat may be anything from chicken to lamb to shrimp and the curry is the spicy (but not necessarily hot) sauce that marries the meat and rice together.

A curry can be broth based, cream based or tomato based. It may be mild, a bit sweet or even hot. The word curry is believed to have derived from the word "kari" or "kadhi", which refers to gravy or sauce based dishes. In most Indian kitchens the spices for the curry have traditionally been ground by hand and added to the meal. When the British colonized India (in the 18th century), curry spice blends were developed for their convenience to make their own curry dishes. While curry has it origin in India, the Brits took their love of this style of fusion cuisine and even proclaimed Chicken Tikka Masala the national dish of Britain.

There are several benefits to using curry powders. One is saving the need to buy numerous individual spices that may or may not be used often and the other is that you get a nice harmonious balance of flavors without having to recreate the wheel from scratch.

Flavor Profile

Our premier Maharajah Style Curry Powder is earthy, slightly floral, sweet and spicy with citrusy notes, It is not considered a hot curry powder and is ideal for adding magnificent color and unmatched flavor to seafood and chicken curries.The brilliant reddish hue is from the most exclusive of all spices - Saffron. Our Saffron is the highest rated Category I saffron and grades at 190+ on Coloring Strength.

What's In It

Hand blended from fenugreek, turmeric, yellow mustard, black pepper, cardamom, cumin, coriander, fennel, cayenne, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger and saffron.

Helpful Hints

As a general rule of thumb you'll get the optimum flavor from curry powder by frying it for 30 seconds or so in oil or butter (ghee is traditional in India). But you can use it in all types of dishes.

Curry is excellent with egg, chicken salad and can be used as a secret ingredient in familiar soup recipes.

We also carry a full selection of curry powders - Sweet Curry Powder, Vindaloo Curry, our top sellingMadras Curry, Garam Masala andRas El Hanout. We even carry a Caribbean curry powder called Colombo Powder.

Three of our favorite recipes using this top of the line curry powder are Maharajah Curry Spiced Cashews , Quick and Easy Vegetable Curry, and Quick and Easy Vegetable Curry.


Nutritional Information
Serving Size 1 Teaspoon, Amount Per Serving: Calories 1.8, Fat Cal. 1.8, Total Fat .2g (0% DV), Sat. Fat 0g (0% DV), Trans Fat 0g (0% DV), Cholest. 0mg (0% DV), Sodium 14.4mg (1% DV), Total Carb. 1g (0% DV), Dietary Fiber .5g (2% DV), Sugars 0g, Protein 0.1g (0%DV), Vitamin A (.6% DV), Vitamin C (.5% DV), Calcium (.8% DV), Iron (2.5% DV), Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.