I love Indian food and, most of all, curry. I see all over the Internet different recipes for nice and authentic curry blends (powdered spices) but all of them seem to be different. Could you send me or let me know about a very authentic one?

 Boy, there is no such thing, and we would get in so much trouble if we tried to give you a recipe.

First, there is no such thing as curry. Second, any spice mix for said non-existent curry would not be authentic.

Spices and herbs are ingredients in so many great Indian dishes, but they are specific to those dishes (and traditionally roasted, ground, and mixed as the dish is prepared). There is not an authentic Indian dish known as curry or that uses a mix of ground spices known as curry powder. The great Indian cooks rail at the suggestion that a set of spices used for a certain dish can be used willy-nilly for another dish.

Our suggestion is that you buy one or two books from a serious Indian cook and learn which spice combinations go in what dishes – and make those dishes unique.

Here are some of our suggestions:

• An Invitation to Indian Cooking
• Classic Indian Cooking
• From Mom With Love . . .: A Complete Guide to Indian Cooking and Entertaining
• Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking
• Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking
• Complete Book of Indian Cooking: 350 Recipes from the Regions of India

Answering your question this way just gets us in trouble with all the people who say, "Of course, there are authentic curries [and curry powder]. I had a delicious one just the other night." Or, "As usual, Ochef is just trying to make things unnecessarily difficult. I'm going to buy me some* curry powder," (or "make me some* curry powder"), "and there's nothing you can do about it!"

We try to be strong in the face of these statements. We recognize, though, that we are swimming upstream against such other books as 50 Great Curries of India, 660 Curries, and The Curry Book: Memorable Flavors and Irresistible Recipes From Around the World.

*Making up bad quotes and making people who disagree with us sound like hicks is the only way we have to mock them. But they are right, if they want to buy or make them some "curry powder," there is nothing we can do about it.

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