Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Balti Masala

The late 80's or the early 90's popularised Indian food in UK.And thus developed the Indo -Brit cuisine with its curry powders and sweet -spicy chutneys and most prominently the CTM or Chicken Tikka Masala.  I remember even seeing a documentary on Chutney Mary. The balti restaurant or the curry houses became the norm of the day and balti cuisine or the Indo brit cuisine came into existence and several spice mixes called balti masala gained popularty. Normally balti means the bucket in Hindi, but here it can mean the pan in which the curry is cooked.The origins of balti cuisine is not known. There are stories that it originated in the Indian hub of Birmingham while others talk about Baltistan in Kashmir as its origin. The I have seen several recipes for the the particular spice mix and recently I tried out this recipe  from Harini 's blog which she had adapted from Raghavan Iyer's 660Curries.

Ingredients:

Fennel seeds: 2 tsp
Coriander seeds: 2 tsp

Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Black Mustard seeds: 1 tsp

Cloves: 1/2 tsp
Black Cardamom (moti /kali elaichi): 1/2 tsp
Nigella seeds (kalonji): 1/2 tsp

Dried Bayleaves : 3 whole  or 3/4 tsp
Cinnamon stick: 1 big 6 inch piece or almost 3 tbsp

Red Chilli Powder: 2 tsp
Nutmeg Powder : 1/2 tsp

Preparation:
Dry roast all the ingredients except the chilli and nutmeg powders until they are highly fragrant. Remove from heat,cool and stir in the powders. Grind to a fine powder and store in an airtight container.


You can use this powder as a substitute to garam masala in you favourite curries. You can also use this as a garnish for buttery mashed potatoes and even fruits for a spicy sharp taste.

This is a keeper recipe ,thanks to Harini with whom I am paired with this week in Blog Hop Wednesdays, by Radhika 


5 Comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Even i saw at Harini's space, planning to make some soon..looks wonderful..

Unknown said...

I would love to give that masala a try, I can also feel the taste of it in my curries, what a masala :)

Mugdha said...

This looks gr8...thnx for sharing such a nice recipe..ur recipes r soo yumm, i cdnt stop following u...:-)

Do check my space at ur freetime..tc..enjoy...:-)

mjskit said...

I love spice mixes such as garam masala, so this Balti masala really has caught my interest. The seasoning combination sounds wonderful!

Harini said...

We loved the preparation and I am sure your family would be treated to a variety of dishes :)

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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