Bengali garam masala. An aromatic spice mixture. Add a pinch of this garam masala with a teaspoon of ghee or clarified butter in your curries at the end to enhance the flavour and taste. This spice mixture is commonly used in every Bengali home. In curries, ghonto,dalna etc.
My mother and mother in law both were use it freshly ground in stone grinder or sil batta. And they never dry roast the spices. But I have dry roasted lightly for easy grinding. I remember it’s a regular duty of our domestic helper to grind a small bowl full of this garam masala with the help of little water daily. I didn’t use my stone grinder or sil batta since a long time. Discarded the old one because of small modular kitchen. But I had browse for the picture last night. And loved the picture below. Just like I had in my earlier kitchen.
In my parental home stone grinder or sil batta was made of black stone. In Bengali it’s called sil nora. I will ask my sister in law to send me a picture. Earlier shared one more aromatic Bengali spice mix Bhaja moshla to enhance the flavour of your cutlets, dum aloo, sandwich stuffing or any savoury dish.
Sending this recipe to 278 #Foodiemonday bloghop theme is Spice Mix Secrets suggested by Aruna SarasChandra who blog at Vasusvegkitchen. Aruna is a very talented blogger. Her space is full of different types of wonderful recipes. And she has also some delicious and flavorful spice mix or podi recipes. I have bookmarked her Peanut powder or palli podi and Idli dosa podi. Do visit her space for many more delicious snacks, starter, bread, curries, baked and tiffin recipes.
As I mentioned above that earlier people used this masala freshly ground. But I always store some for easy use. You have to add very little of this spice mixture. And never add it with other spices when sautéing or frying. Always add at the end or before removing the curry from stove for best result. It will make your dish more aromatic.
Recipe
Cardamom- 20
Cloves- 16
Cinnamon- 3 stick
Method
1. Dry roast the spices on a skillet for one minute only. You can also grind without dry roasting. But lightly dry roasted spices will grind easily.
2. Grind when cool. Store in an airtight container for later use. Add a pinch in your curries with ghee or clarified butter at the end to enhance the taste and flavour.
Notes
1. You can also grind this spice mixture without dry roasting if you have a powerful grinder.
2. You can add bay leaf and little javitri with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon if you want to make your spices more aromatic. But in Bengali garam masala we use only green cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.
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