I’ve been having a blast playing with all my new spices!
I dragged out my masala dabba, which I bought a couple of years ago but never got around to using. It’s a traditional Indian spice box, made of stainless steel…
It has an inner lid to lock in freshness, and a small spoon…
I filled mine with (clockwise) : Kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, black mustard seed, turmeric, cumin powder and fennel seeds, with cinnamon, green cardamon and star anise in the middle.
I made garam masala, following this recipe from Mamta’s Kitchen.
Into a grinder went:
- 1 tablespoon black Sarawak pepper
- 1 teaspoon whole cloves
- 4 whole black cardamon pods
- 4 whole green cardamon pods
- 2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
- 5 broken dried bay leaves (a gift from the Spice Girl)
- 10cm cinnamon stick, broken up
After blitzing, the mix was sifted to remove any fibrous bits.
I used the garam masala in Mamta’s chickpea curry (Channa curry) following the recipe here.
A tip from the lovely Barbara at Harkola – dried chickpeas can be soaked and frozen before boiling. They can then be boiled from frozen as required.
When I made this curry, I simply took the container out of the freezer and emptied it straight into a pot of cold water, brought it to the boil and simmered it until the chickpeas were soft.
Finally, I used my homemade curry powder to make a Malaysian style chicken and potato curry. It was a hearty feed on a cold winter’s night!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 