MASALAS

MASALAS

Masalas are an integral part of cooking. If one does not have the right spices, it can change the entire flavor of the dish.

Most spices are easily available at the Indian store or grocery stores, depending on what you need. But, a few ethnic spices are hard to find especially outside of India.

This is the reason I had to learn to make my own Parsi Cuisine spices. At least a few that are used often. I will keep posting these recipes as and when I make a batch.

You can make a big batch of these spices and store them in an air tight container in the freezer for up-to a year.

Some of the spices I use a lot are

Lal MASALO. Red chili paste.

Dhansak masala.

Parsi sambhar masala.

Green masala.

Adu lasan.

Tomato paste masala. ( used in a lot of vegetable dishes )

LAL MASALO. RED CHILI PASTE.

Ingredients:

200  grams dry red kashmiri chili’s

200 grams garlic

100 grams jeera/cumin seeds

2 tsp salt

6 tbsp cooking red vinegar

2 tbs oil

Method:

Cut the tops of the kashmiri dry red chili’s. Deseed and cut them into pieces, add salt and soak them in vinegar.

On a pan dry-roast cumin seeds for a few minutes and grind to a fine powder. Then add the garlic and the soaked Kashmiri chili’s along with the vinegar and oil and grind to a red paste.

If needed, add a little more vinegar and oil to grind into smooth 

PARSI SAMBHAR

As per Niloufer Ichaporia King’s My Bombay Kitchen

Makes about 2 cups. Store in an air tight container for future use. Keeps for about six months.

Red chilli powder – 3/4 cup

Salt – 2 tbsp

Ground turmeric – 1 tbsp

Asafoetida – 2 tsp

Fenugreek seeds – 1/2 cup

Brown Mustard seeds – 2 tbsp

Peppercorns – 1 tsp

Star Anise – 1 tsp, broken pieces

Cloves – 1 tsp

Cinnamon – 1 3″ long stick

1/2 ts white sesame seeds

Canola oil – 1 tbsp

- Mix the chilli, salt, turmeric and asafoetida together in a bowl.

- In your spice grinder, grind the rest of the whole spices together. Mix the ground since with the chilli-salt mixture.

- In a small pan, heat the oil until it shimmers.

- Take the oil off the heat and pour into the center of the ground spices. Mix together with a fork until the oil is swirled in thoroughly and the spice mix loses its powdery look.

DHANSAK MASALA.

Ingredients:

8-10 dry red chillies (reduce or even omit if you dont like chillies)

2 tsp cumin seeds

5 tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 dried bay leaves

6 tsp fennel seeds

4" piece cinnamon stick

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1/2 tsp cardamom seeds

Seeds of 1 black cardamom

4 cloves

1 tsp sesame seeds

1/2 tsp nutmeg powder

Method:

1. Dry roast all the items (minus the nutmeg powder) one by one on a medium flame till they become aromatic.

2. Let them all cool down, then grind to as fine a powder as possible. Store in a tightly sealed jar for maximum freshness.

GREEN MASALA ( Green chili masala paste )

Ingredients

2 large fistfuls of green chilies, from Indian store, or 1 fistful Serrano peppers, de seed half, chop half with seeds in. If you do not want it spicy, remove all the seeds.

2 tbs full jeera seeds. Cumin seeds, pounded roughly.

10-15 cloves of garlic , crushed.

1 tsp salt.

Very little water to add in mixer.

Method

Grind all ingredients in a mixer to form a smooth paste.

Store in air tight container in fridge or freezer, use sparingly as it will get more hot in taste as it ages.




ADU LASAN PASTE. ( GINGER GARLIC PASTE )

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cup peeled garlic
1/2 cup peeled ginger
1 tsp salt

METHOD

Put all ingredients in mixer with very little water and blend into smooth paste.
store in air tight container in fridge.