Make your own, – Easy Chaat Masala and Tandoori Spice Blends

Both Chaat Masala and Tandoori spice blends are easy to make, and a useful addition to any store cupboard. They are equally at home with a summer barbeque of for a curry night in with friends. Do read our post on Make your own Garam Masala to get an understanding on how I use spices and the correct way to toast them.

Chaat Masala – – – – – Tandoori Spice Blend

Chaat masala is a spice blend commonly used with fruit salads, vegetables, and street food snacks. Try it on a dal or finish your tandoori chicken with a dusting. Eggs, paneer, even your basic side salad will benefit from a sprinkle for a full on hit of flavour.

Chaat Masala uses chilli powder, cumin, amchoor, (dried, unripe mango powder), coriander, ginger, fennel, black salt, black pepper, and ajwain seeds. The flavour is spicy, salty, and tangy with a little tartness from the amchoor. The black salt brings a sulfuric scent a bit like overcooked hard-boiled eggs. In current terminology you might say it’s a bit ‘Marmite’ if you find it distasteful just substitute a flaky sea salt in its place.

Black salt is a volcanic Indian rock salt mined around the foothills of the Himalayas. It’s not actually black but greyish when ground.  Using a smoked sea salt could be interesting. Black lava salt also known as Hawaiian black salt is also available which used to be mined but now is normally sea salt with activated charcoal added. Its it a much darker colour that the Indian version.

Chaat Masala

Makes roughly 10 tablespoons of spice blend

Stage one

2 tbsp              cumin seeds

1tsp                 fennel seeds

1tsp                 ajwain seeds

1tbsp               coriander seeds

1tsp            black salt

1tsp                 black peppercorns

Stage two

½ tsp               fresh nutmeg (grated)

4tsp                 Kashmiri chilli powder

1tsp                 ginger powder

3tbsp               mango powder (amchoor)

1tbsp               dried mint

Take a small frying pan and add the ingredients in stage one apart from the peppercorns and salt. Place the pan over a medium heat and gently toast the spices. If you haven’t already, read our post on understanding and toasting spices.

When almost ready add the peppercorns and salt to the pan and toss together.

Cook for another one to two minutes then trip the spices into a cold plate to cool down.

When cool, grind the spices to a fine powder and add the ingredients in stage two then store in an airtight container ready for use

Tandoori spice blend

The classic flavour of Indian cooking. Use as a marinade with yoghurt, ginger-garlic paste, salt, and lime juice, coat the meat well and marinade for at least four hours. I like to leave mine overnight and cook it on the BBQ when possible. This blend gives a natural colour to the meat, unlike the brilliantly red colour often served up in the local takeaway. If you wish to replicate the colour, simply add some food colouring to the marinade when you make it.

Stage 1

1tbsp               cumin seeds

2tbsp               coriander seeds

3                      cardamom pods

2                      cloves

1tsp                 black peppercorns

4                      leaves of mace

4cm                 cinnamon stick

Stage 2

1tsp                 ground turmeric

½ tsp               ground ginger

1tbsp               paprika (I use the smoked picante version)

1tsp                 garlic powder

3tsp                 mango powder (amchoor)

2tsp                 Kashmiri chili powder

Take the cardamom pods and crack them open with side of a cook’s knife. Pop them into a frying pan and add the cumin and coriander seeds.

Toast the spices as outlined above then add the peppercorns, cloves, mace, and cinnamon to the pan.

Cook for two minutes more turning the spices all the time then tip them onto a dish to cool.

Finely grind the spices then add in the spices in stage two. Mix well and store in an air-tight jar ready for use. If the jar is well sealed, they should keep for a few weeks but the fresher they are used the better.

I can’t wait to get the BBQ going, and in a later post I will cook some Tandoori Chicken with Basmati rice and Masala sauce. But don’t wait for me, get your spices ready and look up How to Portion a Chicken on the bone in The Food Files pages.

Enjoy life!

John.

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©John Webber. 2023