How to make Garam masala powder at home?

Here is the easiest and simplest garam masala powder making tips at your own kitchen. In the market, we can get many types of masala powder like chicken masala, vegetable masala, mutton masala, meat masala, garam masala etc,. The ingredients for almost all the masala are more or less the same.  But the taste differs as per the use of spices in different quantity.  Among all these masala powder recipes, garam masala is the common one, which can use either in vegetarian dish or in non vegetarian dish.  So we can call this garam masala as a commonly used spices powder.   Freshly ground garam masala powder has a wonderful aroma and should be used in moderation.  The following are the ingredients required to prepare garam masala at home:

1. Cloves / grambu                       - 10 numbers

2. Cardamom / elakka                  - 4 numbers

3. Cinnamon stick/ karuvapatta   -2 pieces of 1" length each 

4. Star anise / thakkolam            - 1

5. Fennel seed / perumjeerakam- 1 tbsp

You can lightly dry roast all these ingredients and make it cool down and powder it.  Home made garam masala is ready to use.  If you wish to keep the garam masala powder for later use, increase the quantity of the ingredients according to the above proportion. Store the powder in an air tight container and try to use it within 2 months to get the full flavour. 

If we buy garam masala powder from shops, it may contain the following ingredients too:

1. Turmeric powder

2. Poppy seeds

3. Caraway seeds

4. Fenugreek

5. Cumin seeds

6. Ginger

7. Nutmeg

8. Aniseed

9. Black pepper seeds

10. Couscous etc.,