Garam masala

It means 'hot mixture', but the pleasure of garam masala lies not in its warmth but the sense of surprise it brings" Nigel Slater

Yes it does mean 'hot mixture' or 'hot spice' but not in a chilli sense. According to Wikipedia it means:

"'heating the body' in the Ayurvedic sense of the word, as these spices are believed to elevate body temperature in Ayurvedic medicine."

And I am not going into Ayurvedic medicine here. Suffice to say that it doesn't mean hot in a spicy sense, although it is of course spicy in the sense that it is a mix of spices.

This is my first 'First recipes' post. You may remember that I thought I would add 'First recipes' to my writer's block categories. When I can't think of anything to write about I use some mechanical way of seeking inspiration. In this case it's the importance of the first recipe in sucking you into a book, whilst at the same time investigating something to do with that first recipe.

The choice of book is not random - not like my basic lucky dip - I would lose track of which ones I have done and which I have not. So today I extracted the last (in the sense of being the last on my shelves) book in my collection, and I shall work back from here. The last book happens to be Charmaine Solomon's Indian Cooking for Pleasure. I think it's one of those 'cheat' publications in that it's basically all the Indian recipes in her massive Complete Asian Cookbook, but it's smaller and therefore easier to handle than that massive tome, and so it has been much used. For I bought it in my early days in Australia when there were no Indian restaurants and I needed to learn how to cook Indian food.

However, Charmaine Solomon was not my first Indian teacher - that honour goes to the very slim and now completely forgotten Cooking the Indian Way which I think has featured before - perhaps in a lucky dip. And coincidentally one of the first things I learnt to do when learning to cook Indian food from this little book was to learn how to make garam masala. Indeed to make the acquaintance of garam masala.

It was from this book that I learnt a basic method for making an Indian curry - and yes I am using 'curry' in a not very correct sense but certainly in the way that we English use it. The basic technique was to fry onions, ginger and garlic together, add your spice mixture and cook for a bit, add your meat - or fish, or main vegetable, stir and cook for a bit, add some kind of liquid and cook until almost done. Then just before the end sprinkle with garam masala and lemon juice and cook a bit more.

When not following an actual recipe this is still the basic method I use when cooking 'curry'. Sometimes I finish with a different technique, learnt somewhat later from Madhur Jaffrey - I add a mass of some kind of fresh herb instead of the garam masala.

Nigel Slater, who, interestingly does not make his own, but buys a shop bought version, seems to think you should add garam masala at the beginning of the cooking.

"The most common way of using garam masala is to add it as a base note with the onions at the start of cooking. Adding it early on lays down a deep, almost smoky backnote of pepper and cumin. A last-minute addition will leave the more ephemeral notes of cardamom, cinnamon and clove intact." Nigel Slater

I don't think he's right to add at the beginning, well if you are going to be traditional, as I'm pretty sure that all of my more authentic Indian cooks use it in the same way as my first teachers.

Having learnt that garam masala was essential I would make up a batch of it according to the recipe in Cooking the Indian Way, so that I always had some on hand. I wonder if I had begun to cook Indian food today whether I would have done this, because, of course, now every supermarket has several varieties of garam masala in a jar, including home brand varieties. It's that common. And as we have seen, even cooks of the like of Nigel Slater buy it in jars. Nowadays I tend to use Charmaine Solomon's version.

Now I saw one article that said that there were probably as many versions of garam masala in India as there were cooks and some commentators seem to think that there is a regional difference:

"In northern Indian cuisine, garam masala is typically used in powder form, while in the southern part of the country, garam masala is often formed into a paste with coconut milk, vinegar or water." Danilo Alfaro - The Spruce Eats

However, it seems to me that, of the recipes that I have, there may be a variation in quantities but the spices used seem to be pretty much the same in all cases - coriander seeds, cinnamon, peppercorns, nutmeg, cumin seeds, cloves and cardamom. They do vary slightly - Charmaine Solomon has three different versions. And they almost all roast the spices separately before blending them together. I believe that other additions may be star anise and fennel seeds, but I have to say my four 'real' Indian gurus are all pretty similar. Here are their versions, plus one from SBS which is a little bit different. (Apologies - not feeling strong enough to convert quantities from pounds and ounces to grams)

Charmaine Solomon - 4 tbsps coriander seeds, 2 tbsps cumin seeds, 1 tbsp whole black peppercorns, 2 teaspoons cardamom seeds (measure after roasting and removing pods), 4 x 7.5cm cinnamon sticks, 1 tspn whole cloves, 1 whole nutmeg.

In a small pan roast separately the coriander, cumin, peppercorns, cardamom pods, cinnamon and cloves. As each one starts to smell fragrant turn on to plate to cool. After roasting, peel the cardamoms, discard pods and use only the seeds. Put all into electric blender and blend to a fine powder. Finely grate nutmeg and mix in. Store in a glass jar with an airtight lid.

Cooking the Indian Way - 8oz coriander seeds, 4 oz cumin seeds, 2 oz cinnamon, 2 oz cloves, 4 oz peppercorns, 4 oz large cardamoms, 1 tsp nutmeg powder.

Roast the coriander and cumin seed separately. Peel the cardamoms. Grind all the spices and store in an airtight container.

Madhur Jaffrey - Take 1 tbsp cardamom seeds, 1 tsp each whole black cumin seeds, whole cloves and black peppercorns, as well as about 1/3 of a nutmeg and a 5cm cinnamon stick. Put them all into the container of a clean coffee grinder or other spice grinder and grind as finely as possible. Store in an airtight container.

The Encyclopaedia of Indian Cooking - 100g coriander seeds, 8 bay leaves, 100g white cumin seeds, 25g cardamoms, 25g cloves, 1 x 5xm stick of cinnamon, 50g chilli powder, 50g black pepper, 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Put the coriander seeds, bay leaves, cumin seeds, cardamoms and cloves together with the cinnamon stick into a flat baking tin, and roast in the hot oven for 20 minutes. Then put the spices into a grinder and grind very finely. Combine them with the powdered ingredients, the chilli powder, black peppercorns and nutmeg, and store in in an airtight jar. A bit different this one.

And then there's the SBS one which includes, caraway seeds, fennel seeds and star anise.

So as you can see it's really a personal thing with a sort of theme.

As to the importance of the first recipe, well I have always loved Charmaine Solomon books for beginning with a whole variety of spice mixes and pastes that can transform your cooking. They lured me in. I think her Thai book was the one that really got me in that way as the previous Thai cookbooks I had seemed to be so complicated. Her Complete Asian Cookbook was the first of hers that I bought, and yes, that lured me in with the spice mixes and pastes at the front of each section. It seemed somehow more authentic and real.

I guess in a way it's no different from having a whole lot of herbs and spices, mixes and pastes that you have bought in the supermarket but at least you know what went into them and they somehow taste so much more 'real'. There always seems to me to be some kind of lingering artificial taste to shop bought stuff. But then I'm stingy and I don't buy the top quality ones. I do buy curry pastes every now and then. On standby as it were. Making your own spice mix or paste is the same thing I guess.

Anyway, I hope this is not too boring for my first attempt at first recipes. Have a go at making your own garam masala. I'm sure you'll find it makes a difference.

"Part of the magic lies in the looseness of the recipe." Nigel Slater