Garam Masala

Okay, so years ago, I couldn't find garam masala spice blend in my grocery store. Recently though, the store's gotten a little more diverse and better at stocking "exotic" ingredients and they sell it now! It's v. exciting and convenient.

However, I'm still in love with making my own garam masala mix. I can customize the heat level and make the blend in small batches as needed. I don't make Indian food all that often so it bums me out to think that the garam masala is sitting in the spice drawer feeling super lonely and sad and unused.

This week is Indian food themed. Garam masala will be used in every recipe that I share from tomorrow through Friday. By the way, I shared this garam masala blend previously but as I've been doing with many of my older posts, I wanted to update it.

Ingredients [yields approximately 4 tablespoons of garam masala]:
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1½ teaspoons cayenne pepper (add more or less depending on your spice tolerance)

Basically, you dump all of the spices into a bowl, stir them together, and bottle them up or use them. This isn't even a recipe; it's laughably simple.

The most strenuous part is grinding the pepper and grating the nutmeg and it takes all of 10 seconds to accomplish.

I absolutely love this particular spice blend. I'm a fan of well-balanced garam masalas that have an appropriate amount of sweet elements mixed with spicy elements. I'm sure actual Indian cooks may chime in and say that I didn't do this correctly, but I've experimented and this is my personal favorite blend.

xoxo.