I have been making this recipe for over 25 years. We keep coming back to it. Try it as written first – then experiment. Once you have made your own Garam Masala – you will never go back to store bought stuff. Used in many dishes, but especially in my Chicken Tikka Masala recipe.
Wood Fired Oven
Medium – heat up to about 180 – 250 Deg C.
Ingredients
- 16 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 4 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
- 8 tablespoons cumin seeds
- 8 teaspoons cardamom seeds (measure only after you have removed the pods after roasting)
- x3 8cm cinnamon sticks
- 4 teaspoons whole cloves
- 1 whole nutmeg
Oven Equipment
- Small cast-iron frying pan heated in the wood fired oven.
Instructions
In the small cast-iron frying pan, dry roast all the ingredients separately (except the nutmeg which isn’t dry roasted), until they start to darken and release their gorgeous fragrance. I slide the pan into the oven while dry roasting. Be careful not to over cook and burn them – they don’t take long.
Extract the cardamom seeds and throw away the pods. Place all the warm roasted spices into a coffee grinder (or grind by hand) and blend in batches, until it turns into a semi coarse powder. Grate the nutmeg into the spice mixture and stir through.
I store my Garam Masala in a large glass resealable jar. This makes a lot, but you go through it fast, especially when adding to Chicken Tikka Masala.
The fragrance of home made, dry roasted Garam Masala is amazing. Try it.
