[Anupy] On today's show I'm taking the basic spices of Indian cuisine and showing you how to blend them, roast them, and make them unique.

And I'll make a fried bread, perfect for parties, called puri.

All that and more coming up on "Indian As Apple Pie."

I'm Anupy Singla, cookbook author and journalist.

I was born in North India and raised in Pennsylvania, with a foot in both cultures.

Growing up in suburban Philadelphia, I learned English from "Sesame Street," and Indian cooking from my grandfather.

Homemade Indian food always brought our family together.

It's why I'm so passionate about preserving our culture and recipes, so that everyone can learn how to make delicious Indian food at home.

This is "Indian as Apple Pie."

[announcer] This program is made possible by... Leysin American School hosts summer camps for students of all ages in scenic Switzerland.

Golden country Oriental food.

BMO Bank.

Al Sahara.

Handmade rugs.

If the introduction to Indian food is basic spice, well the advanced course is all about spice blends, roasted and ground to perfection.

We're going to be talking today about the most commonly used spice blend in North India.

It is called garam masala.

Garam means "warming" and masala just means "mixture of spice."

And today, what we're going to do, we're going to combine it with another spice blend to create chana masala, the iconic Indian dish, and it is going to taste so delicious.

I promise your family is going to think you ordered takeout.

There is nothing that I love more than being in the Indian grocery store.

It is my happy place, and it is where I come to get a lot of my ingredients to make things like fried puri.

We're going to show you how to do that today.

We're also going to talk about garam masala, a really important North Indian spice blend.

Now, you can come to a store like this and get whole spices to make the blend like cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds, whole black cloves, or simply just buy it pre-roasted, pre-ground just like this in a package.

But I really want you to learn how to break this down, roast it, and make it yourself, because it is absolutely delicious when made from scratch.

Now, while making homemade Indian spice blends feels a little bit complicated, maybe somewhat intimidating, not to worry, I've got you.

It is really not that complicated at all.

As long as you have a really good recipe that walks you through the basic spices that you need.

We're making a garam masala today, and you want to start with a very dry pan.

There's nothing at all in my pan.

There's no water.

There's no oil.

That's why we call it dry roasting.

We're going to go ahead and turn our stove on to like a medium high, and we're going to go over here and grab our first spice.

We need about a cup of cumin seeds.

Now, if you want to make less of the blend, you can halve the recipe, you can also grab bunches of the spices.

As long as you know the proportion that's going to be right.

And you'll get used to that.

Not a problem at all.

So, we've got about half a cup of the coriander seeds.

We'll put those in as well.

We're going to add in a quarter cup of whole black cloves.

We've got a black cardamom pod.

This is a very unique spice.

Very woody, very earthy.

Remember it's very different than the green cardamon.

We've also got black peppercorn, that will add a little bit of spice to our blend.

And then we've got our cinnamon sticks.

Now, we want about 12 cinnamon sticks.

Because this is heating up, I just want to give it a shake, and I'll add in my last spice, which is nutmeg.

We just want two of the whole nutmeg.

If you can't find whole nutmeg, not a problem, just go ahead and add the powder, but don't add it until after we grind.

You don't want to heat the powder on these higher heats because it will just kind of burn for you and you'll ruin your blend, so we'll add that later.

Now, I noticed-- You hear that?

There's a little bit of the crackling.

That is the spice cooking.

And what we're hearing is, because there's no oil or water, we're hearing some of those essential oils from the spices hitting the heat and kind of breaking out, and now we can see all of the steam pulling up around the spices.

This whole process should really only take about three to four minutes.

I can smell that just coming off of the pan.

It smells so delicious, so inviting, and perfect.

We'll give it that shake.

We'll turn the heat off, and then we're going to take all of these contents and put them on a plate that's cool because you don't want them to continue to cook.

They're as roasted as we're going to get them without burning them.

So, we'll get a nice big plate, and we will start to pour these out.

And look how beautifully roasted they are and how quickly we did this.

That is pure magic.

So, we'll just go ahead and let it cool for about 15 minutes and then grind it down.

We've roasted our spices.

We've let them cool on a plate.

And what I did was I transferred half to this bowl and then the other half to the smaller bowl that I'm going to reserve and store later.

And then we're going to take this over to our blender and we're just going to go ahead and grind it down.

It's all going to go in.

Remember, we want to split the nutmeg because we used whole nutmeg.

So, one goes in here, one goes in my small bowl here reserved for later.

And then let's see if we have luck with grinding this down.

You're going to be a little bit patient.

So, as we open this up, this is going to feel warm, but what I really want you to notice is what's inside there.

Look how beautifully dark and brown and just absolutely delicious this looks, and how rich this blend is.

This is the richness that you get from a blend that is freshly roasted and ground down at home.

And if you can make it, why not?

Chickpeas have become more and more popular.

The way we like to eat them is from dried.

We like to soak them overnight and then cook them.

If you have a canned chickpea, it's basically absorbed all the moisture and flavor it can, but a dried, it's like a clean palate.

You can add all that flavor in, and it's just going to continue to absorb it.

So, what I've got here is one cup of chickpeas.

You'll be surprised how long that's going to go.

We're going to be able to cook for a family of four with just this one cup.

We soak them overnight and now I'm going to drain them.

Give them a rinse to get some clean water on them, and drain them again, and bring them back to cook.

Next, we'll put those chickpeas in a large pot and add eight cups of water.

Put on the lid, slightly ajar.

Bring it to a boil and simmer for about an hour and 15 minutes.

At that point drain the chickpeas and be sure to save four cups of the cooking liquid.

It's called aquafaba, and we'll be using it later in the recipe.

We're now ready to cook this chickpea curry.

I'm so excited.

We've got that heat coming off and now we're ready to add in our oil and our ghee.

Ghee is clarified butter, but if you don't want to use it, not a worry.

Just use the two tablespoons of oil or just use the ghee.

I like to put mine in.

I like that flavor profile.

Let's take our spice box and we're going to grab our cumin seed, about a teaspoon.

About a half teaspoon of the turmeric powder.

Let that sizzle.

And, also, let's add in our hing, which is just a way to make our dish a little more digestible.

Especially when you're cooking with legumes or beans, it's kind of nice to have.

I love that smell that comes off the pan.

As this starts to sizzle, we'll add our fresh ingredients.

First, one yellow onion that's been pureed in a food processor.

We'll let that cook for about a minute and a half.

Then we'll add some fresh ginger, and three cloves of garlic pureed the same way.

We'll cook that down for another minute and a half as well.

Mince three Thai chilis and add those to the pan.

Then puree a tomato.

I like to use a box grater.

And add that in along with a tablespoon of tomato paste for an extra layer of flavor.

Let's give it a stir.

All these ingredients are coming together.

And we're making what's called a gila masala.

Masala is a term that you can use to replace the word "curry" or "spice."

Curry does not mean "spice" in our cuisine.

We use masala for that.

And we have dry masalas, a mixture of spices.

We also have wet masala.

That's what you call this.

This is a masala, but a Gila masala, which means wet.

We've got our main ingredients in here.

They've cooked down.

And this is looking really delicious, but it has minimal flavor.

We haven't added the spice yet.

So, let's do that.

I'm going to grab my spice box, and what I want are now my spice blends.

Though the coriander powder is our simple coriander seed, that's been ground down.

And then we've got our garam masala.

I added about a teaspoon of the coriander.

I want two teaspoons, maybe three, of the garam masala.

I like my red chili powder because I like heat.

About half a teaspoon.

How about some salt?

Yeah.

We want two teaspoons.

And then we've got our magical spice blend.

This is called chana masala.

It's the same name as the dish that we're making.

We have different spices that we've added in here: pomegranate seeds, dried, and really nice and tart, some amchur powder, which is dried mango powder.

All of these spices have been roasted and ground and then they come together to make this beautiful combination that will make your dish so delicious.

There are some patches where this is sticking to your pan.

So, let's grab our aquafaba cooking water, and just add a touch.

Just get all of the ingredients off the bottom.

Let's go ahead and add in our chickpeas, our main ingredient here.

We've got them.

They've been sitting patiently.

They're going to go in now.

This could be any main ingredient.

You could use another lentil, another bean, another meat that you prefer, another protein, whatever you want.

But I want to make the iconic dish, chana masala.

Let's add the aquafaba.

Now I'm ready to get it where I want to and use up just about all the water.

We're going to let it come to a boil now, and then we're going to put a lid on it.

Keep it slightly ajar to release that steam so it does not overflow.

We'll let it sit for about 20 minutes.

One way to tell whether your curry is done or it needs a little more time, is just take a look at the bubbles forming at the top.

I just call these lazy bubbles.

They're just kind of sitting there, and that's what you want.

You want them to just kind of sit and just get really heavy on the top of your dish.

That's how you know it's finishing.

And then we're going to go in there with our spoon and just check our chickpeas.

You don't have to do a lot of this, but I like to break them down on the sides, just a few, to give it even more thickness.

Look at that.

To finish this off now, let's go ahead and hit it with a little bit of fresh chopped cilantro.

Just like that.

It adds a little bit of color, but it also adds another layer of flavor.

As it sits, we're going to put together a few other dishes that are going to go perfectly with this chana masala.

When you think of Indian bread, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Most people tell me they think about naan.

Well, we do eat naan sometimes, but it's an occasional treat.

We eat so many other types of breads, and today, we want to talk about one of my absolute favorites.

It's called puri, and it's a fried bread, which is made from the same dough as a roti, which is a flattened whole wheat bread.

We want to start with the flour.

The flour is somewhat unique.

You can find it at any Indian grocery store, but it's called a chapati flour.

It's made from stone grinding a durum wheat.

So, what makes this a puri instead of a roti?

Well, part of it is the oil that we're going to add.

We want to put in about four tablespoons of oil.

The other is we're going to actually fry it up.

It's going to be really interesting to watch the process, but first we've got to knead the dough.

I'm going to be honest, I kind of take shortcuts now sometimes.

I got some salt going in, but let's just do it the old fashioned way, which I think is wonderful too because you get to get in here, really touch on your ingredients.

We want to give this a nice mix.

And this is one and a half cups water.

I like to add it slowly because you can always add more water.

It's hard to take that water out.

Now, we're going to get in here and really work it.

This is the fun part, right?

Just a little bit more water as we pour that in there to finish this off.

And there you go.

You've got the dough ready.

So, we're just going to let it sit like this.

It's not going to rise, but we want to get a damp towel and just let it sit for about 10 minutes until we're ready to roll it out.

Our dough is rested, and you can see the color shifts just a little bit.

It's a little bit darker and it's perfectly okay.

Now we want to roll these out.

I want to start by keeping a little bowl of oil next to me so I can dip my fingertips in there and the just grab a little bit.

Put this to the side.

Now puri is a very thin bread, so you can do it by hand as I'm doing here, or you can use a press, either one.

Let's do it the traditional way.

We're just going to pull off a little balls of dough.

The smaller the better though.

This is called making a peda, and my grandmother in our village in Bhikhi taught me how to do this.

Here's a trick, as you're rolling your dough ball, stick your thumb in there, and that just makes it really beautifully nice and round.

Look at that.

Press it.

And then we usually do this more with bigger pieces of bread but just go ahead and give yourself a head start this way.

Just a neat little trick that I always like to use if I'm not using a press for the puris.

Now, let's use our rolling pin.

We like to use smaller, leaner, thinner rolling pins to really kind of get in here and just roll these out.

The oil is what makes the puri so delicious and it lets you roll your dough paper thin.

Look at that.

Now we're ready to cook these up.

I like to traditionally cook them in a pilei.

This is something that they use in India all the time.

It looks similar to a wok, but the metal is pretty even throughout.

We've got oil in here.

This is a high smoke point vegetable oil, a canola oil, anything you'd like.

And we've got to test it to see if it's ready.

My mom taught me how to do this.

I don't know if this is the technical way, but we throw a cumin seed in there and if it sizzles and flows up, which it just did, the oil is ready.

Now, if we want to be a little safer, go ahead and grab a thermometer and let's just see where we are at the temperature.

We're around 310, and we should be okay for the puris.

Let's give it a try.

We'll take one and start our test.

Carefully put it into our hot oil.

Let's just watch it pop up.

Push it down a little bit.

You see how it just pops open like that.

Brown on the one side, and then on the other, and that's it.

Let's go ahead and put it on our paper towels and we can make the rest of the puri.

You don't want them too, too brown.

This is probably as much as I would go right here.

Puffed up and absolutely perfect.

Ready for a lunch, a dinner, a brunch, anything you want.

I love mint.

Spearmint is what we usually use in Indian cooking.

We make a lot of chanteuse out of it.

And that was my job when I was a little girl.

I had to go out in the back, and go grab the spearmint, and I learned how to strip mint leaves very efficiently.

So, I will take the woody stem and I just basically, because I want to get out of there and go play.

I didn't want to be doing this on a Saturday ahead of the big party.

And I'd just go really fast, pull it right off, and then just break that tip off.

And that top little bit is very, very soft and delicate so you're okay.

It's not that woody stem on the bottom.

And then we're going to go for our blender.

We want to get the blades a little wet, so things don't stick.

And we're going to go.

Just go ahead and pour a little bit of water in there.

About a quarter cup.

Then we want to go for our cilantro.

Now, cilantro is a little different than mint.

Cilantro's stems are incredibly soft and we want to use them.

So, don't get rid of those, they have a lot of flavor.

Now, I keep my cilantro in a glass jar with a little bit of water.

And I don't mind that it's a little wet, because it just adds a little bit more moisture into our chutney.

And I'm going to just basically rip it in half and throw it right in.

Why do I like to get that cilantro in first?

It's a little heavier, and when I take these really light fluffy mint leaves, it just kind of compresses.

So, we've got our herbs in, now we're going to go for some of the main fresh ingredients.

We've got one onion.

We've got it just chopped up a little bit.

We've got some Thai chilis.

Use however many work for you.

I like two.

Don't add them in if you don't like any heat at all.

If you just want one, that's fine as well.

We've got ginger, about an inch, some garlic, one clove of garlic.

In terms of spices, we're going really basic.

A little bit of heat from red chili powder or cayenne pepper.

Again, you don't like that heat, make this for your household, don't add it in.

Not a problem.

We're going to add some black pepper, some salt.

Any kind of salt is perfectly fine, about a teaspoon.

Some brown sugar.

We want a little bit of sweetness to this, right?

So, let's go ahead and get it with our brown sugar, about a teaspoon.

And then we want some acid.

Our acid is coming from lemons.

So, we're going to just-- You know my trick, right?

I want to get a fork in there and just poke it a little bit and just work that fork in there to get all of those amazing juices out.

We're going to go ahead and put the lid on.

Now, when we start it, start it on a low mode so that it doesn't flip up right away on you.

You just want to go slow and steady.

And then increase the speed.

Alright, we're going to get a taste of this bright, beautiful green chutney.

And that is so delicious, complex, bright, citrusy, a little spicy, but just enough touch of sweetness.

It is absolutely perfect.

This is one of my family's absolutely favorite lunches: puri, garam masala, and some fresh chutney.

This is how you're going to eat it.

We'll take one of these puris, break off a piece, get into our chana.

Maybe take a little bit of chutney on there.

So many flavors together.

Let's see how it all worked.

It reminds me of when I was little, my mom would make hundreds of these puris, stack them up, and my treat for helping her was to be able to eat the fresh puri with the chutney, so many that we'd have to make another batch, and that's okay too.

[Anupy] I'm all about making Indian cuisine more accessible.

Visit Indianasapplepie.com for more healthy, flavorful recipes, cooking tips, and much more, all rooted in tradition and simplified for our busy lives.

[announcer] This program is made possible by... Leysin American School hosts summer camps for students of all ages in scenic Switzerland.

Golden country Oriental food.

BMO Bank.

Al Sahara.

Handmade rugs.