• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
    • Contact Us
  • Stories
  • Recipes
  • Ingredients
  • Partners

STIRR

Sharing stories of hope & freedom through the experience of food

Garam Masala

garam masala, indian spice, mix of hot spices, cinnamon bark, whole cloves, green cardamom pods, peppercorns

Garam Masala

What herbes de provence is to French cooking, garam masala is to Indian cuisine. Garam masala is a mix of various spices that delivers the intensely rich flavors and aroma so distinct to the region. Garam means “hot” or “heating” and refers more to the toasting of the spices before grinding or the warming of the body when it’s consumed than to a spicy kind of heat. Masala simply means “spice” or “spice mix”. There is not one set recipe for garam masala; instead, the spices and its ratios vary from cook to cook, depending on his or her palate. A common version, though, consists of green or black cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and black peppercorns. Others may also include coriander, cumin, fennel, mace or nutmeg, caraway, and/or dried bay leaves.

Whatever the particular spice blend contains, one factor that remains consistent is that the spices are heated before use and typically added in the last steps of preparation, as cooking the spices for too long can produce a bitter taste. Depending on the recipe, garam masala is either used whole–heated in oil or ghee and then added to, say, plain basmati rice or biryanis–or toasted and then ground before adding to lentils, meat curries, kebabs, vegetables, or yogurts.

Garam masala can be purchased as individual spices or as packets of premixed spices, either whole or ground.

FORMS

  • whole spices
  • ground

 

Grind your own Garam Masala

Previous Post: « Cumin / Jeera
Next Post: Mace »

Primary Sidebar

black cumin

Black Cumin / Kalo Jeera

arhar dal pigeon pea

Arhar Dal / Pigeon Pea

nigella black cumin

Nigella / Kalonji

mustard oil

Mustard Oil

chickpea garbanzo bean gram flour besan

Chickpea Flour / Besan

indian five spice

Indian Five Spice / Panch Phoron

fresh methi fenugreek green leaves

Fenugreek / Methi

Footer

STAY CONNECTED

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Copyright© 2023 · by Shay Bocks