Garam masala

Garam masala is on of the most basic spice mixes that you find so often used in Indian cooking. It is a blend of five or six spice that really work well together in a way that you know will bring you the result that you require.  Now the list of spices below are the ones that I would sue to make the spice mix and once you have and a practice then you can start to add either more of one or the other to your own personal taste.

For the garam masala spice mix you will need.

1 tbsp cardamom seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp black cumin seeds

1 tsp whole cloves

1/3 of a whole nutmeg

A medium or half stick of cinnamon, about 5-8cm/2-3 inches

Now to start with you might not find that you can get all of the above spices so if you have to you can do the following.  If you cannot get hold of Cardamom seeds, then just use pods and shell them yourself, If you can not be bothered with actually shelling them then add about 3tdsp of whole cardamom pods to the mix.  Black cumin seeds are not always available so just use the regular cumin seeds.  The rest you should be able to get from a supermarket or any good food shop.  If you are in a big city you will no doubt find that there are a number of outlets that will sell any kind of spice you are looking for from around the world.  The only problem with this kind of shop is just coming out with what you want and not every thing you see.

Now the best thing for this sis a spice blender but you can use a coffee grinder.  Or even crush ever thing as mush as you can by hand in a mortar and peseta, but that is for the very committed.

All the seed and pepper corns grind up fairly easy but as the nutmeg is bigger than every thing else just bash it in a tea towel  with a rolling pin and break it up a bit . Same thing with the cinnamon stick break that up as well.

Then once you have every thing ground as fine as you can get it then just store it in a jar with a tight fitting lid, out of sun light of away from direct heat and that is that.

Just take it out and use it as and when you need it,  there is some thing about a curry that makes it taste so much better when you know you have made the spice blend. You know what has gone in and that every thing was done fresh unlike if you get it of the shelf in a packet.