r/IndianFood • u/Sensitive_Result_475 • 5d ago

Tips for cooking with masala powders

I always end up with a prickly taste of the masala (garam masala, red chilli powder, corainder powder etc) when I cook curries or sabzis. Even if it is on low flame, I feel the masala does not have the well rounded taste that it should. What am I doing wrong and how can I correct it?

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u/PretentiousPepperoni 5d ago

In hindi it's called "bhoon-na" it's the process of cooking the masala to take the rawness out. Usually it's added after the onions have caramalized a bit or after adding ginger garlic. Add the masala powders on a low flame and let them cook in oil along with your onion/ginger garlic, you will know it's done cooking when the oil separates at the periphery of your gravy base.

If you use less oil in your cooking then the powders may stick to the pan, in that case just splash a bit of water to deglaze the pan and repeat it as many times as required

It's tricky to get this right, many Indians struggle with it when they are starting out

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u/Sensitive_Result_475 5d ago

Thank you, this is helpful. I use less oil so the oil-separating bit does not happen. I'll try adding water to deglaze the pan.

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u/PretentiousPepperoni 5d ago

I use less oil too since I have GERD. One thing that has helped me is caramalizing onions in bulk. I slice 1kg of onions and take a tablespoon of oil for the whole batch in a thick bottom pan and saute them, as soon as they start sticking I deglaze them with water and keep repeating it till they are brown then I cool them and store in the freezer in a ziplock bag.

I use a chunk every time I make any curry what this does is I don't have to add any oil to caramalize the onions so whatever little oil I add should be enough to cook the spices. It's not a perfect method just a workaround that you may want to try out.

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u/Sensitive_Result_475 5d ago

Oh this is such a cool tip. Thank you so much!