Garam Masala

Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre is offered free on Kindle for Prime members so I am over the moon excited to dig into this book.

Anyone who is willing to  share their family's recipes is generous, but I also really like that she has vegetarian and vegan options to some of the recipes.

This is garam masala, a staple seasoning in many recipes. The author suggests making this recipe by Raghavan Iyer, author of 660 Curries. I bought a high quality garam masala but when I looked at the ingredients, it was not as intricate as this one so I tried this one. The smell, once I put it in the spice grinder, is so fragrant and it is not difficult to find the whole spices in Hawaiʻi so I think this will always be my go to way of making garam masala. The key, if it not obvious, is to have a coffee or spice grinder. It cannot be any other tool.

Ingredients:

• 2 T. coriander seeds
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp. whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp. caramom seeds, from green or white pods
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp. ground cayenne pepper or 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes or 3 dried red chiles
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken up**

Directions:

1. In a clean coffee or spice grinder, add all the ingredients.
2. Grind until the spices form a medium-fine powder. Stop the grinder several times and shake it so all the seeds and bits get under the blades and grind evenly.
3. Store in a clean small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Store in a cool, dry place for up to 4 weeks.

**note - the cinnamon stick was hard to break up so we used meat shears to break it up before putting it in the grinder.