I am not the kind who prepares various spice blends and stocks at home. In fact, none in my family branches are in the habit of preparing dry spice mixture; they use "shil-nora", the Bengali style mortar & pestle / flat grindstone to prepare fresh spice pastes. Our mother still perhaps selects, washes and dries each kind of spice in the sun before stocking them in the container. They are then made into pastes in small amount each day as per the requirement. This has been the norm for many decades, they always got dried, whole turmeric, further dried it in the sun, then used after pasting at home. I cannot think of working myself up so much to get my curries reach the ultimate state of perfection. But I do not let myself get lazier, today I was to go for my monthly blood sugar check, I walked 6 km before that, reached there to find it closed for today. May be Dr. Chang & family wish to get high on Biryani today. Trivial things around are causing me irritation; they are not at fault but I am! People who could be a thing of joy for me, cannot get me happiness, comfort; the reason may be multifarious, justified too. I am not bothered, I am self centric, so I decide to move miles apart and get rid of whatever or whoever causes me pain. I better cook, read, eat. Reading is not happening at the pace as it should, another reason of my dissatisfaction.
Later, we saw our mother buying dried turmeric and getting it powdered from specific shops. The father when alive used to get them done riding the brother's bicycle; getting the spices powdered from specified shops; get mustard oil from oil mills. That is how the mother wanted. In the recent years, the mother prepares Biryani Masala of her own and frequently uses it to make chicken biryani. I was never into this preparation of spice blends. When I prepare biryani, I blend together the spices required, in less amount. In case of Bengali "bhaja moshola" too, I prepare in less quantity; I have seen they tend to lose the aroma if stored for long. These days, Cristine prepares the cinnamon & cardamom powders required in my regular cooking in small amounts. I have stopped making cloves powder. Coming to this exotic spice blend SHUGANDHI MOSHOLA MIX, it will remain a once in a while affair in my kitchen, I fear damage of my blenders.
So far biryani is concerned, Shan's works well. Everest's Biryani Masala I had tested just after marriage and it tasted like those non-Bengali tawa pulao, very spicy asking us to use yogurt too. Bengalis, I guess do not make their fried rice & pulao too spicy & hot, neither West Bengal it's biryani. I prepare various kinds of flavoured rice is a different issue. The main deterrent in the way of preparing dry spice blends at home is my fear of a spoilt blender, the same is the reason why I do not make sugarcane juice at home. I prepare the juice way better than any shop, adding jal jeera to ginger extract to lemon juice, etc. Yes; good idea, I can safely prepare my own jal jeera powder at home. The problem is there is always a risk of preparing this particular, vegetarian spice blend SHUGANDHI MOSHOLA MIX that has star anise, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg in it. This aromatic, exotic spice blend is made using green & black cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, bayleaf, mace, black & white pepper, caraway seeds, star anise, cumin seeds. I think the dried java peppers is what I am missing here.
INGREDIENTS :
I took them on a heated pan, kept the heat at minimal. I dry roasted them at minimal heat, continuously stirring for about 7-8-9 minutes. We must be very careful to avoid burning.
Pour them on a plate and let cool.
Once done, transfer half the amount to the blender. Blend at high for sometime definitely pausing every 30 seconds in between.
Add the turmeric & red chilli powders now and blend for 30 seconds. We should be done.
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