can anyone help i recently wanted to try a recipe for a curry,but needed a spice grinder (dont have one).never seen one would a coffee grinder work???? where do i get one?? want to learn how to make a good authentic indian curry myself rather than get a take away . the jars of curry you buy in supermarkets just dont do it for me.

How about using a good old fashioned pestle and mortar? Takes a bit longer but gives your arms a good workout

If you use your coffee grinder - I'd keep it for spices in the future as I don't think you'd totally get rid of the scent of spices.

Hi looby10

There are two types of grinder generally available: there is a "burr grinder", which actually crushes the spices or beans, and then there is a "mill" that works by chopping the material up - in a similar way to a blender, but with a smaller blade spinning at high speed.

A lot of coffee buffs prefer to use a burr grinder, because it really does crush and grind the beans into a powder and they claim it gets the very best flavour from the bean. They do tend to be more expensive though. I bought a hand one in TK Maxx - about £15.00.

Amazon or Robert Dyas sell the mill type - there is a James Martin one that sells for around £14.99.

Another way is to use a heavy pestle and mortar - bought mine in Tesco, about £6.00 as I remember, but it was a few years ago.

All three methods work with spices, but I think you will find that many people prefer the grind and crush method over the milling process.

Yes, good point Mrs Woof Woof, it's best to keep a seperate grinder for coffee.

I used to grind my coffee with a hand mill but found it tedious every day.

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So I bought an electric grinder

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which is great. So I use the hand mill for spices and it works well.

Nice set up Grisinni

The electric burr grinders are a tad pricey though.

There is a fourth way, sometimes used by TV chefs, which involves putting the pepper-corns, or whatever, onto a steel worktop and beating the blazes out of them with a sauce pan!

Not sure it produces such a fine end product though!

Sounds fast and efficient. I went on a Indian cookery course once and the teacher told us to just crush seeds with the palms of our hands.

Sounds like something the Spartans would say

"It is Spartan law, we crush seeds with our bare hands" hope you have seen the film or you may not get that