Indian cuisine is never complete without this special mix of spices called garam masala. Garam refers to hot and masala is a mix of spices. Every Indian home always keeps stock of garam masala which is used in a variety of curries – both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items.
While there are a whole variety of brands of garam masalas readily available in the market, making your own fresh quantity of garam masala is an experience to treasure. You can make your own variety with a bit of tweaking of the combinations to make a garam masala which is truly your own. Over a couple of batches of garam masalas you can arrive at the taste and flavor you and your family loves. All it takes is a little bit of adding or reducing the amount of each spice used.
The basic ingredients are coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, cardamom seeds by breaking open the pods and scooping the seeds, a couple of cinnamon sticks, cloves and whole nutmeg. You can add a bit of bay leaves, dried chillies or fenugreek powder if you so wish.
You can take a dry skillet and roast each item separately and keep aside. Wait till each spice turns fragrant and then transfer them to a plate to cool off. The nutmeg can be crushed into fine pieces. They can then transferred into an electric blender (mixie) and ground into a fine powder.
Keep this in a clean glass jar to be used when you next need to make your vegetable or met at curries. A couple of spoons of these is enough to deliver a heavenly taste and aroma. The benefit of making your own garam masala is that the true essence of the spices is not lost. Most factories produced and packaged garam masalas have a bit of preservative and also their aroma is lost much in production.
It is always good to make garam masalas in small batches. You can always access the best and freshest spices from keralaspicesonline.com . They deliver spices internationally and in India, it is delivered without cost.
