My Spice -- Garam Masala, Bhaja Masla & more...

Bengali Garam Masala is actually a very simple mix of 4 spices: Cloves, Cardamom, Cinnamon and Tej Patta. The Tej Patta as I have seen is abandoned many times in favor of the others. My Ma however loved it and used it whenever the recipe called for garam mashla as phoron (i.e. tempering the food by spicing the oil)

Whole Garam masala

She would sun the above spices and in our stainless steel jarred Bajaj Mixer make a dry powder of them and store it as a guro Garam Mashla or as we say in English Garam Masala powder

I take a step ahead and put more stuff in my Garam Masala powder. I also dry roast the spices instead of just sunning them which is the norm. My version is NOT the standard bengali version. The Bengali version usually does not have Red Chilli or Mace

Spices I use to make my Garam masala powder

My Garam Masala Powder

Dry Roast 20 Green Cardamom/Elaichi, 10 Clove/Laung, a 2" stick of cinnamon, 3-4 Dry Red Chilli for the slightest heat, 2-3 small barks of mace/javetri and a small Tej-Patta. Note: What I have here is a Bay Leaf but a small Tej Patta(Indian Bay Leaf) works better. Also you can substitute red chili with black peppercorns. You can dry roast either on the stove top or pop them in the oven at 250F for 5-8 minutes. The roasting is done only to warm the spices which have been lying around for a while. Instead you can sun them and then grind.

Grind to a fine powder in your coffee grinder.

Store in an air-tight container for future use

Lately I have been a sucker for home made spices. I cleared the pantry of all Shan masalas and barring the Kitchen King, Kasoori Methi and Amchoor I have no other store bought spice powder. Oh, wait I have a packet of Deggi Mirch which is used sparingly by us and and indulged on by the nanny.

So anyway without all the Shaan masala I was kind of stranded in no-spice land when I wanted to make a Kofta Pualo some time back. Luckily I remembered the Biryani Masala at Mallugirl's. I love that masala and use it for not only making Biryanis but in various other dishes.

Here is how I make Biryani Masala based on this recipe. I reduce the carraways seeds and increase the fennel as I like the sweetness of fennel and find cararway seeds too spicy. Also I forgo the star anise and add nutmeg powder instead of the whole.

Biryani Masala Powder

Dry Roast 8-10 Green Cardamom/Elaichi, 8-10 Cloves/Laung, 2" stick of cinnamon, 1 small Bay leaf, 5-6 small bark of mace/javethri, 2 tsp of Fennel seeds, 1 tsp of Carraway seeds/Shah Jeera

Put all of the above in a coffee grinder jar along with 1 tsp of nutmeg powder

Grind to a smooth powder and store in an air tight jar

Use this masala for loads of stuff from adding a pinch to your pualo to spicing up the marinade for fish, from adding to biryani to your chicken curry. I use this masala alternately with Garam Masala but when using this, use a smaller quantity.


And then there is the Bhaja Mashla(Roasted Masala) my Ma makes for sprinkling over most chutneys and also in vegetable chops. I had blogged about it here in my Baked Beet Roll recipe. The Bhaja Masala is called so because the spices here are dry roasted and then ground. This spice mix has been blogged about in detail in my later post Bhaja Masla.

Bhaja Mashla

To make this Dry Roast 1 tbsp each of Jeera (Cumin Seeds), Dhania (Corriander seeds), Saunf (Fennel Seeds), 6/7 Laung (cloves) , 6/7 Elaichi (Cardamom), 3/4 TejPata(Bay leaves), an inch & half of cinnamon stick and peppercorns according to desired hotness.Then just dry grind it to a powder. Note: This was last made by my Ma and so measures are approximate

Punjabi Garam Masala

The recipe of Punjabi Garam Masala is from Anita of Mad Tea Party. Original recipe is here. I think her recipe asks for more of the black cardamom but I used about 15. Also I used the seeds and discarded the skin

I did it this way. To make this sun or gently warm on tawa 1 tbsp Cumin seeds, 1/2 tbsp Clove, 1/2 tbsp Peppercorn, a 1" stick of cinnamon, 1 tejpatta and around 15 black cardamom. Dry grind to a powder.

Check out other spices in this series in the left hand column

This weekend our kitchen floor is getting a makeover and so the kitchen will be closed for weekend. I am shacking up at a friend's place, kids in tow and the friend has promised to make a Patha'r Mangsho'r jhol for lunch tomorrow. She cooks delicious food and you know what I am looking forward to.


Wishing all Moms a Very Happy Mothers Day. There is a Mother Day event going on at Desi Momz Club. All moms, member or not please feel free to contribute.

Brown Rice -- Tomato Rice

There was an interesting article in NatGeo(May '09) about the carbon foot print of wine. It seems it is more carbon efficient for a New Yorker to raise a glass of French Wine than a California one.

The wine journey from Napa Valley, Calif by less efficient and more carbon emitting trucks has a larger carbon foot print than the wine container shipped from France or even Sydney. So even though "distance" does matter, efficiencies in transportation might overcome that.

Though the article is not there on the net, the research findings which provided the numbers for NatGeo are here

All this makes me think it might not be all that environmentally prudent to buy local food always and shun food based on "food miles" alone

Who said "Going Green" would be easy ?

Green is back in my neighborhood though and so is Spring.


Read more...

Tulsi(Holy Basil) barely survived winter

Hostas are back, overcrowded, need to space them out, didn't

Annual azalea bloom in the garden

Green is back

We used to be quiet afraid of Brown Rice when we first heard about it. We even made fun of it and like ignorant bumpkins made statement that rice which was available for free in Indian ration stores were packaged and sold in super market aisles here at a high price.

Truth be told we had tried neither, the ration rice or the brown rice. But like true browns we chased the white until we fell for the goodness of brown.

With great trepidation we tried our first brown rice and liked nothing much about it. The only way we could eat this stuff is as a Khichuri or a Fried Rice, proclaimed the other half. So that is how it was, Brown Rice Khichuri or Fried Rice occasionally, on days we felt our body should ingest some goodness. Eating it felt morally so good that we could chomp on a burger later without any guilt.

Slowly we ventured into making regular brown rice, flavoring the cooking liquid with cardamon, cloves and what not. We got hooked onto the nutty taste, it tasted best with a gravy thing or with dal. We even graduated to having fish curry with Brown Rice. Yes, we have come a long way on the Brown Rice Trail.

We still continue having white rice though and haven't switched completely but weekends are always brown and so are most of the one pot rice meals.

Some weekends back D made a Tomato Rice. He used Brown Rice instead of the white rice that is normally used. He followed Sailaja's Recipe down to making the spice powder. It tasted beautiful.

Next day I made some to pack for lunch. I skipped the spice powder as I wanted a non-South Indian Tomato Rice. Instead I added some fresh home made Garam masala powder. That tasted great too.

And we had one more Brown Rice recipe that worked great for us. Are you afraid to try Indian dishes with Brown Rice, give it a try, you just might love it.

Baked Salmon er Kalia

This recipe is for SJ of A Pinch of Spice. Until she mentioned I did not even know that a dish called "Baked Salmon er Kalia" was titillating Bong palates up North-West. I knew the regular maacher kalia (or fish kalia) but this was salmon and that too baked. My local bong friends spoiled by the bangladeshi fish sellers abounding the east coast seldom cook salmon while entertaining and so such a nouveau dish had not found its way in their kitchen.

So I searched high and low, actually I just Googled and bam landed on this recipe. "So this is what it is", I thought, "almost like a regular kalia but the salmon has been marinated in spices and baked" ?

I still do not know the answer i.e. if this is the REAL "Baked Salmon er Kalia" or not. Only SJ can testify. Till then all I can say is this was a lovely salmon dish, just like a regular macher kalia but with salmon and we thoroughly enjoyed it with a bowl of brown rice. Big Sis S seems to have taken a liking for salmon and certain fish fillet, and this dish apparently earned her approval



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Baked Salmon Kalia

For 6-7 pieces of salmon fillet. Each piece roughly a square of 2" x 1.5"

Prep: Make a marinade of 2 -3 tbsp yogurt, 1/2 tsp of garlic paste, 1/2 tsp heaped of ginger paste, 1/4 tsp of R. Chilli Powder and salt. In a shallow flat bowl(or even a plate) put the fish pieces and pour the marinade over the fish. Put back in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes

Grind 1/2 cup of chopped red onion + 1 fat clove of garlic + 2 green chilli(adjust according to your hot tolerance) to a fine paste

Start Cooking:

Drizzle a little olive oil and bake the salmon pieces for 20 minutes at 275F 350 F  After 20 minutes turn them over, sprinkle a little sugar and put in broil for next 5 minutes. Note: After suggestions by a friend I have been baking Salmon at a lower temp of 275F and the fish is much more moist and delicious. So i am updating this post with the new bake temperature.

To Make the Gravy:

Heat Oil in a kadhai or a heavy bottomed pan

Temper the oil with 1 large Bay leaf or 2 small tej patta(tej patta is usually smaller than bay leaf) + 4 Green Cardamom/Elaichi + 1/2 tsp of Whole Jeera/Cumin Seeds.

When the spices sputter add the onion + garlic paste

Fry for a couple of minutes with a sprinkle of sugar.

When the onion turns a nice reddish brown, add 1 tsp of fresh grated ginger + 1 small tomato finely chopped(try to get a nice juicy stem tomato and use only 1/2 of a large one)

Fry till you see the tomato turn into a pulp and there is no raw smell

To 1-2 tsp of yogurt add 1/2 tsp of Corriander powder + 1/2 tsp of Cumin Powder + 1/4 tsp of Red Chilli Powder + little Turmeric and make a paste. Here instead of yogurt you can make a paste in water also

Add this paste + salt to the Kadhai/Pan, turning the heat to low

Fry till you see the oil separate from the masala

Add about 1/2-1 cup of water and let the gravy come to a boil. You may need to add more water depending on the amount of gravy

Let the gravy simmer till it thickens. The gravy will have a smooth consistency.

You can pour the gravy over the baked fish and serve. Alternately add the baked fish to the gravy and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with chopped fresh corriander leaves and serve




My other Fish Kalia with Rui -- Maacher Kalia

Salmon in an Indian Chilli Fish