What is garam masala? Method of preparation and use of this seasoning

When you're going to cook an Indian cuisine dish on a cookbook, you often find such an interesting ingredient in the recipes as garam masala. What it is? Can you make the seasoning yourself in our northern latitudes? Or the preparation of fragrant Indian dishes will remain an unattainable dream for us? Of course, on Russian bows do not grow zira, cardamom and coriander, but in our forests you will not find a clove tree. But in the markets you can easily find all the necessary ingredients.

So, we go to the market. What do we need and in what quantity? The very word "masala" from the Hindi language is translated as "mixture". That is, this combination of herbs and spices. "Garam", by the way, means nothing more than "hot". Therefore spices should be warmed. Garam masala is a mixture of spices that not only smell sweet and give the dishes a unique flavor. Seasoning is indispensable in the so-called "winter" dishes - chicken in curry, for example. And at home, in India, the mixture is added to a wide variety of foods: salads, soups and even desserts.

So for what are we going to the market? Ask the merchant to let you two tablespoons of coriander, cardamom and zira. You also need to buy two cinnamon sticks (about 5 cm long), a teaspoon of cloves (buds) and ground nutmeg. Well, at home you probably have one laurel leaf and two soup spoons of peppercorn. Now let's start cooking the masala. The recipe is extremely simple and resembles roasting of seeds.

We take a heavy frying pan, preferably with a thick bottom, put it on a small fire. Without any fat! When she warms up properly, pour out on her a mixture of spices without nutmeg and we interfere with her wooden spatula. After a while, the spices will start to smell. After ten minutes of this calcination, the mixture will change color - it will become darker. It's a sign that it's time to turn off the fire. Completely cool the garam masala, add a spoonful of grated nutmeg. Once again, stir and grind in a coffee grinder. The powder is poured into a tightly closed container. The mixture preserves the fullness of the aroma for about three months, and then begins to weaken.

There is another, more complex recipe for garam masala - "Karma". According to him, we cut each spice separately. And the mixture is somewhat different: 10 grains of cardamom, 5 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 4 leaves of laurel, 2 dried pods of hot red chili, and also two soup spoons of mustard, cumin, coriander and peppercorn. Then we combine all the crushed spices in a bowl. We heat the dry pan until a light haze arises. We add a mixture and calcine it, constantly stirring with a wooden spatula, two minutes. Cool, pour into a jar.

In what dishes does Garam find application? Almost all meat, if you want to give them a note of southern exotics. This mixture of spices can also eliminate unwanted smells of products, such as lamb. Fillet fry in olive oil for 5 minutes before crusting, spread on a plate. In the remaining fat for 3 minutes, we pass the chopped onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Add to them 2 spoons of garam masala and fry for half a minute. Again, put the pieces of fillet in a frying pan, pour in broth or tomato sauce, bring to a boil. Then cover the frying pan with a foil or lid and put in a preheated to 180 C oven for 4 hours.