Green spice mix for curries

There are different types of spice mixes that are used in an Indian kitchen. Many people prefer to use home made spices mixes even though store bought ones are easily available. There are different spice powders for different dishes, however garam masala powder is commonly used in most Indian dishes. This can be home made as you can use fresh ingredients and make in quantities that you know will be used in a specific period. Different chefs have different recipes but typically whole spices like cinnamon, peppercorn, cloves, cumin etc are common to all of them, these spices are either sun dried or dry roasted and then ground to a fine powder.

The spice mix I share with you today can be used to make great tasting curries with chicken, beef and prawns. You can use it to fry fish as well and enhance flavours of vegetable side dishes. I have shared the smallest quantity of ingredients required to make this. If you wish to make a larger quantity increase the quantity of the ingredients proportionately and store in a air tight container till all is used. In case you run out of garam masala you can use this as a substitute, though I'd like to caution you that this spice mix is pepper hot.

Recipe credit: Ms Rozita Coutinho

Green spice powder:

1. Jeera - 1 tbsp
2. Peppercorns - 1 tbsp
3. Cinnamon - 4 inches
4. Cardamom - 6 nos
5. Cloves - 15 nos
6. Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp

Grind to a fine powder in a blender and store in an air-tight container. Use a dry spoon to use as needed.

You can increase the quantity of the ingredients to make a larger quantity.

This spice mix can be used as a substitute for garam masala powder in regular cooking and in the following recipes that you will find on this blog:

1. Green meat
2. Coconut juice chicken
3. Prawn curry
4. Pork Saulantulem : You can add a 1 tsp of this spice mix to enhance the taste.