The rice: lightly fry some cinnamon stick, green cardamom pods, cumin seeds, and cloves in olive oil. Add rinsed rice and stir it fast so it doesn’t stick. Add the water, some tumeric and salt. Mix it all up and put the lid on. Turn to high or medium high, bring to a boil, reduce to low, check it in 10 minutes to see if it’s done.
Once done the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and cloves should have floated to the top. Fish those out and discard them.
The veg: Julienne some carrots, dice some onions, pull out some frozen peas, grab some shelled sunflower seeds. Pull out your wok and add some oil. On high heat add the carrots, onions and some salt. Stir fry until the onions start to turn translucent. Add maybe half a cup of water the peas and put a lid on it. Once the water has mostly evaporated add some garam masala and the sunflower seeds. Stir fry until done.
Mix the two together.
Accidentally vegan. Cost per person: $1.12
I make my own garam masala. I even have a jar with all the whole seeds and stuff ready so in case I run out I can toast it up, let it cool and grind it up.
I always end up buying way more cardamom than I can reasonably use because I get it at the international market and they don’t do two ounce jars that are half full like McCormick. I could send you some.
One of my biggest regrets about moving West is no international groceries within reach, consarnit. Btw, what do you use to grind seeds & stuff, coffee grinder or mortar & pestle…?
Thanks for the offer. I’ll try to see what Exchanger Joseph’s & Heinan’s have to offer and possibly take you up on that. I’m down to just ghee and a bag of panch puran (seed mix) for Indian dishes, but the latter is pretty strong and typically only used in some dishes, far as I know. Real garam masala would be something I’ve never actually cooked with before, outside of the overpriced, limp, McCormick-style powder.
It’s a standard coffee/spice grinder. Good for spices, making powdered sugar or lentil flour.
Whatś in yours? I’ve seen quite a few different recipes, so just curious about yours
Garam masala
2 tbsp coriander seeds (Indian, not American)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp green cardamom seeds
2 bay leaves, not Mexican
1 arbol chili pod (optional)
2 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground or freshly shaved nutmeg