Many purists abhor commercial curry powders. “They are anathema to Indian cooking,” wrote Dharamjit Singh, author of Indian Cookery, “prepared for imaginary palates, having neither the delicacy nor the perfume of flowers and sweet-smelling herbs, nor the savour and taste of genuine aromatics.”
Southern India Curry Essentials
In addition to the numerous spices found in the curries of southern India, there is one other enormously important ingredient: the coconut.