Many of you asked me for a garam masala recipe. Frankly, I have used many different recipes for this popular spice blend. Some I liked, some not so much. After a while, I just started using store bought one. Then I really started liking garam masala that my friend Pallavi uses. I asked her recipe, she said her mom makes it for her. It is from a Marathi book called Annapurna by Mangala Burve. I borrowed the book and got the recipe. I changed it a bit to decrease the amounts of some ingredients and so far I really like this garam masala. It is quite different from any I have tried so far. This has lot more ingredients than any I have tried, but I like the aroma of it. It brightens up any dish with a unique aroma. I leave out the black cardamom, no one at home likes the strong aroma of this spice. I am sure it is a acquired taste, so far we are not able to get used to it.
Some other garam masala recipes that I like – Anita’s Punjabi garam masala , Ashwini’s garam masala .
Garam Masala
Ingredients
- 100 gms coriander seeds
- 10 gms cloves
- 10 gms cinnamon
- 1 tea spn shah jeera
- 5 gms white peppercorn
- 10 gms fennel seeds badishep
- 10 gms poppy seeds khus khus
- 1 whole nutmeg jayphal
- 3-4 mace japatri
Instructions
- Heat a very little oil and fry all the ingredients on a low flame till a nice aroma comes out, take care not to burn any spices.
- Cool to room temperature and grind to a smooth powder. Store in air tight container.
Garam Masala
Ingredients
- 100 gms coriander seeds
- 10 gms cloves
- 10 gms cinnamon
- 1 tea spn shah jeera
- 5 gms white peppercorn
- 10 gms fennel seeds badishep
- 10 gms poppy seeds khus khus
- 1 whole nutmeg jayphal
- 3-4 mace japatri
Instructions
- Heat a very little oil and fry all the ingredients on a low flame till a nice aroma comes out, take care not to burn any spices.
- Cool to room temperature and grind to a smooth powder. Store in air tight container.
Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. Ishaan had two weeks winter holidays and V took one week off from work. We stayed indoors mostly because of the cold weather. But we had lots of get togethers with friends. It was so much fun for all of us. We got up late, ate whenever we wanted instead of going by clock, slept very late and played/chatted with friends. I am kind of sad that the holidays are coming to end and from tomorrow, the child will go back to his daily schedule!. I had plans of posting something here once in a while but was feeling too lazy.
I did not know about Avocados (‘Benne hannu’ in Kannada) till I moved to US many years ago. I love this creamy fruit and when Ishaan was younger, I would buy it regularly, mash it up with lemon, salt and feed him. I also tried to incorporate it in any Indian dishes when possible – like this avocado dosa . My latest favorite has to be this avocado chapatis/parathas. One mashed avocado in the dough makes very soft chapatis. I make these very often now. Sometimes I just add avocado to wheat flour and make dough, sometimes I add some spices to it to make it more tasty.
Ingredients: 1 avocado (mashed) 3 cups wheat flour 1/2 tea spn red chili powder 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 1 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves 1/4 cup yogurt/curd(optional) Salt
Method: Mash the avocado and add chilli powder, cumin seeds, salt to it. Mix well. Now add this to wheat flour, add coriander leaves, mix everything well. Add yogurt to the mixture and enough water to make a dough. Keep the dough aside, covered, for 15-20mins. Roll them into chapatis/parathas and roast on hot tava. Serve hot.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 30mins
