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For part of my Christmas baskets this year I made up curry jars. Curry is a mixture of preferred spices. In some southeast Asian cultures each family has a secret blend of curry blend or ‘garam masala’ that they pass on from generation to generation. It is best to use high quality spices for your curry mixture. High quality does not necessarily mean more expensive. You can buy your spices whole and grind them in a coffee grinder (it is best to have a designated grinder for spices). Or you can purchase freshly ground spices from a retailer. But for the best flavor, it is best that the spices are as fresh as possible. 
Also, I prefer to have all of my spices roughly the same ‘size’ for textural purposes. Leafy herbs that are added to curries are often slightly larger, but mine are ground down to almost as fine as the powdery spices.
- 1 T ginger powder
- 1 T garlic powder
- 2 T sage (finely ground)
- 2 T cumin powder
- 1 T coriander powder
- 1 T Celtic sea salt (optional, but I use it for a rub and recipes that call for salt, you may want to leave it out and add salt as needed)
- 1 T turmeric (optional: I left these out of my gift curries because it adds color that others may not appreciate)
Mix
Mix these all together and store in a glass container.
A couple of options for use:
- Mix 1 T curry with 1 1/2 or 2 cups of real yogurt, 1/2 lime juice, and 2 T rice wine. Marinade meat with the yogurt curry for 4 hours. Then cook. I will sometimes grill these, but you have to remove excess yogurt before. Keep the yogurt curry for basting during grilling.
- Use the curry as a dry rub and marinade for 8 hours. Grill or bake as usual.
Recipes Using Garam Masala
Simple Creamed Spinach – Dairy Free
Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
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Garam masala is one of my favorite curry spices to use, but I have never used it in this way. I bet that is amazing. We’ll try it over the weekend!
I’m hosting a whole food wednesday carnival over at Beyond The Peel and we’d love it if you came by next week to share. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out.
http://www.beyondthepeel.net/2012/01/whole-food-wednesdays-keeping-it-real.html
I hope you have an amazing weekend
France, we will go check it out next week. Thanks for the suggestion!
Yum! I was just thinking the other day that I needed to learn how to make my own curry powder. My husband is a huge fan of curry (or anything filled with spices).
I love making my own spice mixes. It allows me complete control over the ingredients and it is so much less expensive. Thanks for sharing your curry spice mix recipe with the Hearth and Soul Hop.
I like the blend of spices you have used in your curry spice mix. It sounds wonderful! Thank you for sharing it with the Hearth and Soul hop.
Great curry mix!
I added the mix to my Christmas baskets last year and I have had requests to have it again this year. Good to know I’m not the only one that thinks it’s great.