Garam Masala

http://video.about.com/indianfood/Garam-Masala.htm

Today we’re gonna learn how to make Garam Masala. Garam Masala is a finishing spice commonly used in Indian cooking
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Garam Masala Ingredients:
2 tablespoons cumin seeds.
2 tablespoons coriander seeds.
2 tablespoons black peppercorn.
1 tablespoon cardamon pods.
1 cinnamon stick ( broken in 1/2 ).
4 bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of whole cloves.

Toast Spices
We’re gonna take these and toast them off next. We’re gonna set this saute pan to medium heat and let it heat up for about 2 minutes. I’m gonna go ahead and add in all of the spices except for the bay leaves, right directly into the pan.

So we’re just gonna keep tossing this around. It’s over medium heat. Keep moving it around. You don’t have to toss it up in the air and be all fancy like me. You can kinda just swing it around in the bottom of the pan. It’s gonna take about 3 minutes.

I like to constantly keep moving it. I don’t want to walk away from it. If it starts to smoke lightly, that’s ok. So 3 minutes later it’s nicely toasted. Very aromatic, it’s smelling up the whole kitchen. Wish you were here to smell it.
Grind the Toasted Spices
Our spice mix is all cooled down now. I’m going to add the bay leaves back in. I’m sure you’ve seen one of these before. It’s called a mortar and pestle. It’s used for grinding spices. My advice to you is to keep one of these around your kitchen for looks and that’s about it.

To get the job done invest about 10 or 15 dollars in one of these: a coffee-spice grinder. This will get the job done 10 or 15 times faster and with much less effort and this is what we will be using to grind our Garam Masala.

Ok so we’re gonna shake everything down to the bottom and get it all into the spice grinder. Put the top right on here. Start to grind it. Shake it around a bit. See that moving around in there. Give it a little shake. You can just watch inside and see how finely it’s being ground. With this stuff, the finer the better. Should take about a minute or so. Take this out and you have made your very own Garam Masala.