I certainly would have believed that a few years ago! That might have been when someone used it on Top Chef.
ETA- Top Chef was 2008 Jaime brought it as a secret ingredient.
"Flurry of excitement mentioned here in 2013!
And again in 2014!
WaPo 2016-What is vadouvan, and why is it showing up on so many menus?
I prefer commercial curry powder to my own when making Coronation Chicken, Jamaican curry chicken, Country Captain.
When making an Indian curry from scratch, I use separate spices and sometimes finish with commercial garam masala. I have been using kits lately, as a quicker weeknight option.
The arvinda’s tandoori masala is better than what i make from scratch.
I like the spice tailor and patak’s curry kits more than my home-made Indian
curry.
Thanks! Even a blind pig finds an acorn every now and then.
The label calls it “a mild French interpretation of curry”, so I guess so. I’ve only tried this one so far. I forgot to mention I also use it in the broth for ramen noodles.
This blind pig prefers finding truffles.
For that classic, heavy on the turmeric yellow Madras curry powder that’s mostly used in non-Indian dishes, I default to Sun brand. Not real spicy, but that’s easy to adjust in other ways.
not about curry powder but we had our first exposure to the madagascar voatsipefery pepper in Rome this year, as a substitute for black pepper in pasta cacio e pepe and I was really impressed. Its quite obscure still - hardly reaching the level of exposure of vadouvan curry powder
I like it a lot–probably prefer it over other black pepper. Wahine not so much, hence the need for another mill.
We were turned on to “the Sauvage” in Paris, and bought several 250g bags at the famous shop G. Detou. Vacuum-sealed and frozen whole, it sleeps in the freezer…
I have had good luck with HEB/Central Market house herbs and spices, including curry powder. It is its own non-traditional thing, but it is still very good and, for me, almost required in egg salad, split pea soup, chicken salad when I make that style (although I usually make it with sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and fresh basil), or a British or Navy style lamb curry. I also like a dash in a dish of shrimp with sautéed onions, white wine, and lemon, served over pasta. I have never found a pre-made garam masala I liked and when making most dishes from India and surrounds, prefer to toast and grind my own mixtures of spices.
I really ike Penzey’s for their spices and even their blends, but I have not favored their recipes. Not their wheelhouse, “ethnic” food recipes.
Basically: the recipes are too mild, and maybe too middle-America in terms of suggested other ingredients. i also avoid those of theirs that contain salt, as I can handle that myself. Good spices, though!
I didn’t even know they ‘did’ recipes!
I don’t, generally, so that’s probably why 
This has been a pantry staple for me since the late 70’s.
Yes, this is the one I have in the cupboard for western dishes that call for curry powder. Its plenty yellow and does not have all the “hot” (cinnamon, cloves, cardamon etc) spices that are in garam masala. I dont have any indian recipes that call for curry powder!
I like Yeo’s, which is a Malaysian curry powder, and classic S&B and the aforementioned Sun Brand Madras. I dislike curry powders too heavy on the cumin, which happened recently with some I bought from McCormick.
Curry powder is perfectly authentic for plenty of dishes (many not western), so I don’t see why I’d bother to make it, especially if I have a preference for a particular flavor profile in a dish that specifically calls for commercial curry powder. Dishes like Singapore noodles, Thai pineapple fried rice, and many others are specifically made with it.
And then there things like Japanese curry roux, which since I can’t buy it here I find much simpler to use something like S&B as the base of the roux, along with adding garam masala to get the flavor that I want.
While cardamom can be in standard curry powder (S&B contains it as the last ingredient for example) it’s pretty uncommon for the simple reason that cardamom is one of the most expensive spices in the world. It’s nowhere near something like saffron, but still not cheap and so not exactly a ubiquitous ingredient.
Would you please share this magical recipe? I can’t seem to find the exact one online…
It’s in his Louisiana Kitchen book, which I don’t have at this house.
I did find this homage, which rings very true–except PH’s uses considerably more butter. The raisins, apples, banana, pecans, coconut and jalapenas are what IMO make it sweetly special.
