Curry powder does not need to be reserved for special occasion dishes.
Curry powder is a blend of several spices, herbs and seeds. It is frequently used in traditional Indian cooking. However, there are several other uses for curry powder that can spice up an average dinner anywhere or add a kick to an everyday dessert. Some may even improve the user's health.
Comfort Food
Curry powder can enhance the flavor of many foods. Adding 1 tbsp or two of the spice blend into traditional American comfort foods, like meatloaf, to give it a spicy and pungent twist. The spices also blend into soups, stews and pasta. Sprinkle the powder to taste (as you would with salt or pepper) into beef stew, spaghetti sauce or pasta salad.
Fruit and Chocolate
Chef Shawn McClain, winner of a 2006 James Beard award and owner of the Chicago restaurants Spring and Green Zebra, is a proponent of curry powder on fruits. Allrecipes.com quotes McClain saying, "We like to combine curry with fruits such as apples, bananas and passion fruit, and sweeter flavors like vanilla." McClain also said the restaurants serve a Maine lobster spring roll with passion fruit-curry sauce. Katrina Markoff, owner of Vosges Haute Chocolat, utilized curry powder in her first exotic chocolate bar. She went on to add curry to chocolate bars, truffles, ice cream and chocolate-covered fruit pieces.
Anticancer Nutrient
A study reported by the Cork Cancer Research Centre in Ireland in 2009 talked about potent anticancer nutrients in curry powder spices. It specifically focused on the compound curcumin, which is found in turmeric. Turmeric is the spice in the powder that gives curry powder its potent yellow color. Sharon McKenna was the lead author of the study. "Scientists have known for a long time that natural compounds have the potential to treat faulty cells that have become cancerous," she said at a press conference in 2009. "We suspected that curcumin might have therapeutic value."
Toothpaste and More
In 2004, Japan became the first country to put curry-flavored toothpaste on sale. David Jago, an executive from an English marketing firm, said in a BBC report that exotic-flavored toothpastes like curry "fits perfectly with the increasing demand for personal, customized solutions." Curry has also been used as a fragrance in the Herbology Collection by Demeter, as a soda flavor in Japan, and ice cream. The Vosges ice cream curry version mixes it with coconut milk and chilies among other things.
Tags: curry powder, Curry powder, blend into, curry powder, powder that