First of all this is not my experiment but its my mom's expertee. When everybody asks me about garam masala I use to tell that its my mom's speciality. So now that I am in pune I actually got the chance to see how this is prepared and wrote the recipe. Obviously this needs more patience than what one thinks of and quite lengthy process but the result i guarantee to be awesome :) So here is the recipe for for all interested parties :)


Ingredients
500g Corriander Seeds
50g Cumin Seeds
50g Fennel Seeds or Saunf
40g Poppy Seeds
20g Bay Leaves
10g Star Anise
10g Black Cardamom
10g Mace or Jayapatri
10g Naak Kesar
10g Cinnamon
10g Black Pepper
10g Cloves
5g Turmeric Stick
1/2 Nutmeg
1cm Asafoetida Block
20g Stone Flower or Dagad Phool
20g Caraway Seeds or Shahi Jeera
Oil

Method

• Heat Pan and add 1/2 Spoon of oil. Roast Jayapatri in this oil on low flame till reddish in color. Transfer to the mixie.
• In same pan add 2 drops of oil and Naak Kesar. Roast it for around 3 min on low flame till it becomes little bigger. Transfer to mixie.
• In same pan add 2 drops of oil and roast Stone Flower in it on low flame for around 3 minutes. Transfer it to the mixie
• Add 2 drops on oil in the same pan and roast Cloves on low flame for 3-4 minutes till they get little bigger. Transfer to the mixie.
• Add 2 drops of oil in same pan and roast black pepper on low flame for around 4 minutes. Transfer to the mixie
• In same pan add 2 more drops of oil and roast cinnamons on low flame till they turn dark brown in colour. Transfer to the mixie
• Add 2 drops of oil and roast Saunf on low flame till it becomes light brown in color. Transfer to the mixie.
• Break nutmeg into small pieces and roast it on low flame for 2 minutes in same pan with 1 drop of oil. Transfer it to the mixie
• Break Asafoetida block into small pieces and roast it on low flame in the same pan with 1 drop of oil till it turns white in color. Transfer it to the mixie
• Break Turmeric stick into the small pieces and roast it on low flame in 1 drop of oil till reddish in color. Transfer to the mixie.
• In same pan roast the bay leaves on low flame in 2 drop oil for 3 minutes. Transfer the contents to the mixie
• Roast Star Anise on low flame with 2 drop of oil for 2 minutes and transfer to the mixie.
• Roast Black Cardamom with 2 drop of oil on low flame till it turns little bigger and dark brown in color. Transfer to the mixe.
• In same pan roast the Jeera with 1 drop of oil on medium flame till it turns brown in color. Transfer the contents to the mixie.
• Roast Shahi Jeera on low flame with 1 drop of oil for around 2 minutes. Transfer it to the mixie
• Roast the Poppy Seeds with 1 drop of oil for 1 minute on low flame. Transfer to the mixie
• Grind all the contents transferred till now to fine powder.
• Sieve the powder and transfer the non so fine powder to the mixie
• Grind again and sieve the contents. transfer the contents which didnot pass through sieve into mixie.
• Roast half of the Corriander seeds with 2 spoon of oil on medium flame. When the seeds start spluttering turn the flame to low and roast for another minute. Transfer the half of them to mixie and Grind
• Sieve the masala again and transfer the not so fine contents to the mixie.
• Add remaining of roasted corriander seeds to mixie and again grind.
• Sieve the contents through and again grind the not so fine contents. Sieve again. Transfer the contents that did not get sieved into the mixie
• Roast remaining corriander seeds in 2 drops of oil on medium flame till they splutter. Turn the flame to low and roast for another minute. Transfer half of them to the mixie and Grind.
• Sieve the masala again and transfer the not so fine contents to the mixie.
• Add remaining of roasted corriander seeds to mixie and again grind.
• Sieve the contents through and again grind the not so fine contents. Sieve again.
• Mix well all the sieved contents and masala is ready.

Notes
Use exact given qunatities of oil for the best results as if you exceed oil quantity it becomes difficult to grind the spices.
Also Fry the spices in same order for the best results as this is the oder that maximises the aroma and will retain it in the masala.
You can use the Not sieved through contents in the non veg gravies or when you would be grinding masala with wet contents.
The above ingredients make around 3/4Kg of masala

I read about this special chutney for the medu wada in the cookery book that I have and tried this. It tastes amazing with the wada obviously not as nice as sambar (wada sambar being my favourite). But I was in kind of wrapping up mode that time and hence didnt want to prepare sambar so this chutney made nice alternative.


Ingredients
1/2 Coconut
1/4 Cup Chana Daal
6 Green Chillies
1 Bunch Corriander
1/2 Cup Curd
1/2 Spoon Mustard
1/2 Spoon Udid Daal
A pinch of Asafoetida
1 Spoon of Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Grate coconut and grind it in mixie with green chillies, corriander leaves, chana daal(one used in chivadas) and salt.
• In this mixture mix curd
• In a small pan heat the oil and let mustard and udid daal splutter in it. Also add Asafoetida.
• Mix this oil into the chutney and serve.

Notes
I used coconut water itself while grinding coconut so that it tastes nice and i dont need to add sugar.
You can also add Red Chillies into the oil for even better taste but i didnt have it so had to skip that.

Medu wada is my all time favourite and if you know that guests are coming in the evening even by afternoon this is something you can try. This time I really managed to get real crisp and nice medu wada with little help from the book.


Ingredients
2 Cup Udid Daal
2 Green Chillies
4 Spoon Coconut Pieces
1 Onion
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Wash and soak the udid daal for around 5-6 hours.
• Once daal is soaked enough, remove the excess water and grind to fine paste.
• Add Salt, finely chopped green chillies, finely chopped onion and coconut pieces and mix well.
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the wadas on low flame.

Notes
Fry the wadas immediately after grinding the daal so that wadas are not oily.
When you put the wada in the hot oil it should float instantly, otherwise add little water to the mixture and loosen the mixture and mix really well.
One can also add little ginger but i prefer non gingery flavour for the wadas.

Its been long time since ajoy had been asking me to prepare mutton biryani. But mutton is not my liking and hence I had been conviniently ignoring it. Then it was that fine day that I wished his grant :) and prepared it. It turned out quite well.


Ingredients
3 Cup Rice
1/2 Kg Mutton Pieces
7 Onions
2 Tomatoes
2 Potatoes
1/2 Cup Curd
1/4 Cup Milk
A Handful of Cashews
5 Almonds
1 Ginger Stick
10-15 Garlic Cloves
1 Spoon Garam Masala
2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
A Pinch of Turmeric Powder
1 Spoon Corriander Seeds
1 Spoon Poppy Seeds
1.5 Spoon Black Pepper
1/2 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Saunf
1 Spoon Dry Coconut
8 Cloves
5 Cinnamon
2 Bay Leaves
5-6 Cardamom
A Pinch of Saffron
1/2 Cup Ghee
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Grind ginger and garlic to paste and keep aside.
• Wash mutton and add curd, turmeric powder, 1 spoon of red chilli powder, half of garlic ginger paste. Mix well and store it in the fridge for atleast 8 hours
• Next Day, Wash the rice and keep it in warm water for half an hour. Remove the excess water and keep aside
• Boil potatoes side by side, cut them in circular pieces and keep aside.
• Warm the milk and mix safron in it and keep aside.
• Chop around 3 onions into fine pieces and keep aside.
• In a pan heat around a spoon of oil and add the chopped onions. Cook till golden brown and keep aside.
• In same pan, heat another spoon of oil and add Jeera, 3 sticks of cinnamon, 5 cloves, 1 spoon of black pepper, corriander seeds, dry coconut, saunf, poppy seeds and remaining spoon of red chilli powder.
• Once the aroma starts coming out of this mixture, add the chopped golden brown mixture of onions in it.
• Add remaining ginger garlic paste to it and mix well and keep aside.
• Grind almonds, the cashews(8-10) that were kept aside and the above fried masala with little water to form paste. Keep aside
• Cut the 4 onions into thin slices and fry it in the ghee and keep aside.
• Keep aside around 8-10 cashews and fry remaining and keep aside.
• Keep aside around a spoon of ghee and transfer remaining ghee to the pressure cooker
• Add the masala paste that we kept aside to this ghee and fry till ghee separates from the paste.
• Add mutton pieces that were kept for marination in this with the marination leftover as well. Cook till ghee separates.
• Puree the tomato in the mixer and add it to this cooking mutton.
• Add around 1/4 cup of water and salt to taste and then cook the mixture on pressure.
• When complete pressure builds up, turn the flame to minimum flame and cook for another 10 minutes. And then remove the pressure cooker from the flame and keep aside to cool down.
• In the mean time, Boil around 10 cups of water and add salt to taste, rice and cook till rice is almost done.
• Remove the excess water from the rice and spread it in the plate to let it cool down.
• In a small pan heat a spoon of ghee(that was kept aside) and add remaining 3 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 spoon black pepper, bay leaves, cardamom. Fry till aroma comes and mix it with the rice and keep aside.
• Now transfer the cooked mutton from pressure cooker to the pan and cook on high flame till it is dry.
• Transfer the excess ghee from this cooked mixture that is now separated into small cup and keep aside.
• Take a pressure cooker(which has good height), Grease it with ghee and arrange the potato discs onto the bottom to cover the bottom completely
• Spread a layer of 1/3 of rice followed by 1/2 of cooked mutton, 1/3 of fried onions, 1/3 of fried cashews.
• Then add next layer of 1/3 rice, followed by another layer of remaining cooked mutton, 1/3 of fried onions, 1/3 of fried cashews
• Layer remaining rice on the top, followed by remaining onions and cashews.
• With the back side of the cooking spoon make 5-6 wholes in this layer biryani till bottom
• Spread the ghee separated out from cooked mutton stored earlier evenly over here. Also spread the milk-safron mixture evenly.
• Close the cooker with the lid, heat tawa and put this cooker on top of it. Cook on low flame for 15 minutes
• Serve hot :)

Notes
While serving, insert the spoon till bottom and get all layers in each servings to get the best taste for the serving :)

Since I was small, My Dad always tells mom that in his company canteen he gets amazing Kadhi Bhaji(Curry Pakoda). And there use to always an attempt from mom to get the same taste and even then dad would be more inclined towards his canteen bhaji. So as kids we normally had this item almost twice a week or so giving another reason that this type of curry wont give cough unlike butter milk. So when I thought of preparing this, I decided to use Green vegetable for pakodas for more nutrition value of the curry. And here I got amazing item in my favourite list.


Ingredients
3 Cup Palak Pakodas
6 Cup Butter Milk
A Pinch of Turmeric Powder
1/4 Spoon of Mustard
A Pinch of Asafoetida
3 Spoon Sugar
1 Spoon Ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• In the butter milk, mix sugar and salt to taste and keep aside.
• Heat the ghee in a small pan and let the mustard splutter in it.
• Add Asafoetida, turmeric powder and take off from the flame
• In the buttermilk add this ghee mixture and mix well.
• While serving, add the pakodas to the above curry and serve.

Notes
You can additionally add Curry leaves in the ghee to give it that flavour but I perferred not to so that I can relish palak and the curry taste rather than the curry taste only.

It been more than a month since I prepared this but due to all sort of logistic issues in moving out of hyderabad I got little busy and couldnt post the recipe even though I had clicked the photos. So today I am going to post all 5 recipes that were pending. New ones will come as and when I try them :)


Ingredients
1 Bunch of Palak
1/2 Cup Bason
1/2 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
A Pinch of Jeera Powder
1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Wash Palak leaves and keep aside.
• Mix bason, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and salt to taste with water to form a paste
• Heat oil in a pan
• When its slightly warm, add a spoon of oil into the bason paste.
• When oil is hot, dip the two palak leaves at a time in the bason paste and add it into the pan and fry the pakoda on the golden colour
• Repeat for remaining leaves

Notes
I used smalled leaves of palak and the pakodas turned out amazing. Especially the palak was crisp and tasty because of its freshness and tenderness.
Also I dipped two palak leaves at a time so that the pakoda has its taste and still not too much of spinach which wont get crisp.