Garam Masala

Standing in the spice aisle at the grocery store the other day, I was shocked that turmeric is also on the growing list of hard to find food items in the North. Two more relevant thoughts then dawned on me:

1) I probably shouldn't be so shocked to not be able to find an ingredient whose origins could not be much further than my current location, and still being on the planet, and

2) Mass distribution of food products has trivialized food and drink. It has made them too consistent and taken away some of the soul. I imagine a spice bazarr was/is probably one of the most exotic experiences any food lover could take in. An overload of all senses. 

Here I am in the Superstore aisle looking at a bunch of yellow packages that are all identical unless you peep in close enough to read the boring labels. With the exception of a few spices, most even look the same in their stale ground form. Nothing vibrant or exciting.

Anyways, this post wasn't supposed to be a long philosophical piece. It was supposed to be about getting away from my comfort zone a little in regards to spices by trying some whose names I recognize from spice blends, but otherwise have no knowledge of their individual aromas or tastes.

I got together with my brother on a Saturday night and we made our own garam masala. 

Garam masala translates (from Hindi) to hot spices. It also happens to be what most of us North Americans mistake as "curry powder". Some research revealed that there is a lot of room for variety in garam masala based on region, tradition, culture etc. We went with a pretty simple blend.

Ingredients:

- Coriander seeds x ~ 4 tablespoons (not shown in picture, and I'm not sure why?)

- Cumin seeds x ~ 2 tablespoons

- Green cardamom pods x ~ 1 tablespoon

- Fenugreek seeds x ~ 1 tablespoon (I think this one was my favourite)

- Black peppercorns x ~ 1 tablespoon

- Cinnamon x a good 5-6 passes over a grader

- Cloves x ~ 1 tablespoon (I guess you could call them twigs when not in powder form?)

- Nutmeg x ~ 1 teaspoon (grind it like cinnamon if you can find it whole) 

- Dried chiles x 3

- The ginger and garlic weren't part of the garam masala but guess it made for a better pic. We used about 3 cloves of garlic and twice as much ginger, pounded into a paste and added to the dish we made around the same time as adding the garam masala.

Directions:

Not much to it. Just toast each spice individually in a pan on mid-high heat until you can smell the aroma of each spice. Then pound in a mortar. It might seem like not much to it since my bro did all the heavy lifting with the mortar and pestle. If you have a spice grinder, use that instead. 

Garam masala is like crepes in that even the best chefs give the first one to the dog.

    

Butter Chicken, sort of

I realize the irony of that 'philosophical' spell at the start and then using spices from the other side of the planet, (or who even knows where these even come from now?) but I'm giving us a pass on this one because we made a special effort to take in as much as we could from each individual spice while we were handling and toasting them. 

While the spices all worked together later on when we made a very North Americanized version of butter chicken (I know, so much irony), our efforts to experience the spices individually while putting it all together allowed us to pick out the flavours, and think about them, instead of just getting lost in the mess of a stale store bought pre-made powder version.

I was too far into the wine by the end to grab a self picture for this one so I'm re-using an old one that is probably actually a decent representation of my drunkness at the time. Merry Xmas everyone!

Cheers