Garam Masala
Source of Recipe
Blacksalt
List of Ingredients
2 C whole coriander
1 cup cumin
3 inches fat cinnamon
3 heaping teas of whole clove
5 teas. whole black pepper
scant single teas. of ajwain (optional)
7-8 whole green cardamon pods Recipe
For small portions, reduce while keeping in ratio and use one of those
Braun-style coffee grinders. If you use yours for coffee, clean it with
a cloth and then grind white rice, then clean again. Repeat this after
grinding the masala unless you don't mind flavoured coffee (could be
worse).
For the above size, grinds best in a small Kerr or Ball jar (not wide
mouth) screwed into the base of an oster blender and ground on HIGH.
For larger (double, triple), grind the coriander and cumin ONLY in a
cuisinart as fine as the old cuiney can get it, then move over to the
oster method. Grind all the other ingredients in the Oster cup. To put
clove and black pepper into a cuisinart is asking for a 'frosted' work
bowl (guess how I know).
Sift your grindings through a mesh that is 25/inch. A tamais gives you
good sides to slosh the masala back and forth in. Anything that doesn't
fall through, grind again. You will eventually get to an amount of
rather flavourless tough, granular stuff (it comes from the coriander
and a bit from the cumin). Toss this. It is all chew and no bite, and I
could only get it through the tamais by hand cranking it through my
German bolt-on-counter grain grinder which I use for crushing caraway
and grinding those-spices-that murder-electric-grinders (e.g. allspice),
only to find it had less flavour than human hair.
And need I say...start with good spice. Penzey's sells good stuff by the
pound. A pound of coriander is 6 cups, and a pound of cumin is 3.
To store, seal tightly in a jar and stick in the freezer, leaving out
only that which you'll use in a week. Keeps very well this way.
Any other brilliant schemes for making this process easier would be
warmly embraced.
I have taken to making a gallon at a time, and freezing it. Remember, I
give alot away....
Nowadays, my first grinding step is to run the cumin and coriander ONLY
through the Kitchen aid grain grinder at med-fine.
Please note that this recipe has alot of cumin and coriander. Many
recipes call for a GM that is mostly the "other" ingredients, and then
have their own, often whole, cumin added. My recipe is from my ex-MIL,
who is as Panjabi as they get.
blacksalt
who uses Tellicherry as well.
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