goda masala, (merged threads) Options

[Manish]

Thanks loislane-- this sounds delicious but, gulp, rather daunting.

This post has been edited by Manish: Apr 11 2005, 06:25 AM

[jason gogal]

Here is Nichiro's goda masala recipe.

I did see another recipe on some obscure webpage, but I would go with Nichiro's version.

[shanta]

dagad phool discussion continues here.

[Veena]

My source for goda masala for the longest time was a friend from graduate school who used to bring back her mother's homemade masala from Pune. Those days I had not discovered the joys or rewards of roasting and grinding one's own spice mixes at home. By the time I thought of asking my friend to obtain her mother's recipe, I had moved to another state (it is very hard to nag for a recipe long-distance!). I did remember my friend mentioning that the masala contained about 15 or so ingredients. Thus began my search for an authentic goda masala recipe. I tried and discarded a few; nothing came close to my friend’s mother’s product. Finally, the taste I sought came from the following recipe (in the meantime, the K-Pra brand of goda masala served my purpose).

This recipe is translated from "Hamkhaas Paaksiddhi" a cookbook in Marathi by Smt. Jayashree Deshpande. The introduction states that she runs a catering business in Pune. I bought the book on the recommendation of a friend, who has used both Ruchira and Hamkhaas and preferred the latter from the viewpoint of taste of the final product, recipe layout, and the kitchen tips that follow each recipe. I have not cooked from Ruchira, but a cursory reading of both books confirmed her last two assertions. This book has become one of my few frequently-used cookbooks.

The recipe looks long and daunting, but it is worth the effort (the really good things in life are never easy!). To make it easier, I “outsourced” the spice selection and measurement: I just took the recipe to my favourite spice merchant (Hansraj Murji and Co. located in Dadar). In less than fifteen minutes, the ingredients were precisely measured and packed. All I had to do was unpack, roast and grind. The amounts don’t look like much, but it yields quite a lot – I end up giving away half of it, and the rest lasts me 4-6 months (stored in an airtight container in the fridge). After 3-4 months, the fragrance weakens somewhat but the masala is still usable.

Some of these ingredients (dagad phool, badal phool, naagkeshar are unfamiliar and may not be easily available here in the United States. I find it easier to buy the pre-measured spices from my spice-wallah in India, rather than deal with the blank looks from the clueless desi shopkeepers (and I mean that literally) in the United States.

A note about the measurements – the author uses vaaTi for some of the ingredients, which I have loosely translated as “cup”. I used a regular-sized steel vaaTi, which is somewhat smaller than the American 1-cup measure.

Kala Masala (Goda Masala)

Translated from Smt. Jayashree Deshpande’s “Hamkhaas Paaksiddhi”

Ingredients:

250 gms green Indori coriander seeds (I used the regular ones as my spice-wallah did not have this type)
Half cup jeera
5 gms cloves
10 gms cinnamon
10 grams black cardamom
5-6 bay leaves
5 grams dagad phool
5 grams naagkeshar
5 grams badal phool
50 grams red chillies
50 grams white sesame seeds
1 cup dessicated coconut
10 grams hing powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
Half cup oil
1 tablespoon salt

Procedure:

1) Pick over and clean the coriander seeds and jeera.
2) In a kadhai, heat a quarter cup of the oil and fry the following spices one after the other: cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, dagadphool, naagkeshar, badalphool, bay leaves, and lastly, jeera. Place the fried spices on a large plate, and sprinkle the turmeric and hing. Set aside to cool.
3) In the same kadhai, roast the red chillies until their aroma is released. Place in another plate, and sprinkle the salt over them.
4) Lightly roast the dessicated coconut over low heat. Set aside.
5) Lightly roast the sesame seeds and keep aside.
6) Heat the remaining quarter cup of oil and fry the coriander seeds until darkish brown.
7) Once the spices have cooled down, grind the spices from step 2 and set aside in a large bowl. Grind the red chilli and salt mixture and add to the bowl. Similarly, finely grind the coriander seeds and add to the bowl.
8) Mix the spices in the bowl well and sift using a sieve. The remnants in the sieve may be ground in the mixer again and added to the masala.
9) Coarsely grind the coconut and sesame seeds (separately or together). Add to the rest of the ground spices, and mix well using your hands. Once the coconut and sesame are added, do not sift the masala again.
10) Store in an airtight container.

[ravum]

Thanks for the recipe and shopping tip,Veena.Shall do the same as you and get the list filled at the store.
Hmm....can picture shanta adding another ckbk to her ever growing list

[shanta]

Yup! Now, if only I could find someone to ship these from India!

Thanks for the shopping tip, Veena! That's a great idea!

[jason gogal]

Curiosity again...what are naagkeshar and badal phool?

[gingerly]

nagkesar

[Anjali]

gingerly, spice goddess and google maestro at the same time, eh?

Anjali

[gingerly]

now here's a little exercise for you-i see a claim that this heavenly sounding badal phool is aka kalpasi aka dagadphul

[jason gogal]

Indori coriander?! Cobra Saffron!? I learn the most interesting things on this forum!

Edit: if this just means the lemon-shaped coriander seeds, I use them all the time. I much prefer the fragrance to the small round coriander seeds. Recently picked up about a 1/2 kilo bag - the smell from the bag alone is heavenly.

This post has been edited by jason gogal: May 31 2005, 11:03 PM

[Anjali]

[gingerly]

and mine is to read,learn and wander

[Veena]

[gingerly]

pics would be great!

[Sue Darlow]

[vAtraT]

I want to make use of the fact that Sue has resuscitated this old thread to say that, freshly back from a viisit to the Land of Glorious Cuisine from the Hands of Various Cousins and Sisters-in-Law, I made a batch of goDA/kALA masAlA last week using the Ruchira recipe. Turned out great! Proof: I used it in a sprouted bean usaL. When I offered the usaL to my cousin's wife, she finished the whole bowl without sharing a single bean with him!

The advantage of the Ruchira recipe is that it doesn't require many of the exotic spices (called for in the other recipes) perhaps not readily available outside India. Of course, you get what you pay for, and you taste what you roast. Yet I'll bet if you conducted a double blind flavor test between the Ruchira version and the more exotic versions, nine people out of ten wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

I would be glad to share some of my stash of the homemade masAlA with fellow Bay Areans in the spirit of evangelizing the goodness of this heavenly condiment. Let me know.

[arnab]

sillier aspects of goda masala discussion merged here

[Veena]

[ggopal]

Ok guys. I will be going to the store in a few minutes to get the ingredients to make the most delicious maharashtrian goda masala powder. I want to make it from scratch and I am going to use the receipe from the link posted earlier. After that, I am also going to fix me up some eggplant+potato sabji using this powder and the receipe from the same link.

[Sue Darlow]

Hey GGopal

You've hardly been on this site a mintue and you've already beaten me to the goda masala making? I had better get my skates on!

Sue, hunting the print out somewhere....

[Nichiro]

[ggopal]

[ggopal]

Nichiro:

Hmmm ... the ingredients on your website seems a little bit different from the one that I have used. I should try the receipe from your site and find out the difference.

[ggopal]

[vAtraT]

ggopal:
The answer may lie in the fact that the ingredients common between the two recipes are the ones essential for the qualities of a goDA masAlA. The rest are interchangeable fillers. Find out what's common, and you'll have discovered ONE of the essential truths eluding mankind all these years.
(Of course, this presupposes you've done the experiment of making your baingan/aloo subji with both kinds of masala and found they both pass muster with people who grew up eating goDA masAlA.)
This is similar to my soliloquy on thAlIpITh bhAjaNI, in the thalipeeth thread.

[arnab]

of the commercially available goda masala brands which ones do folks here recommend? is anything other than bedekar available?

[hibiscus]

Kepra.

[bague25]

[Veena]

From the spices that Hanraj Murji gave me for this recipe, dagad phool and badal phool are not the same. I am planning to make a batch on my next visit back home in a couple of months - I can take pictures and post them (if this is not resolved by then).

I landed up on this thread via the baingan thread and then the goda masala thread.

I don't think anything is resolved yet, so, did you take any pictures? I'm curious!

Sue

Here are some pictures. The quality could have been better. I'll try and take better ones in a few weeks, but these should serve their purpose for now.

Dagadphool


Badalphool/Badhyaan/Star Anise (thanks to deccanheffalump for clearing up the confusion between badalphool and badhyaan):


Nagkesar/Cobra's Saffron/Cassia Buds


Rampatri/Bombay Mace



Veena

This post has been edited by Veena: May 28 2006, 12:40 PM