With inflation at its highest, and the economy going bonkers, it is very difficult to stay in your budget. How to go on about cooking every day foods? The commercial items or rather masalas, like biryani masala, chaat masala, garam masala, nihari masala available literally start from a hundred bucks each. These dishes are every day foods and it is difficult to spend a hundred rupees for just the spices for one time meal. Easy solution? Do it yourself! Yes. Making masalas at home is as easy as making power puff girls: sugar, spice and everything nice! Jokes aside, the only thing to be careful about is the ratio of the individual spices we fuse to make a mix. Once you get a hang of it, trust me, there’s no going back.
The spices can be bought in bulk (saves you money!) and made one time, enough for the entire month. The best part? You make spice mixes according to your own taste buds. Want it spicy? Add more chili powder. Want to make it smoky? Add paprika powder. Low in sodium? Less salt; so on and so forth. I admit this may take some practice, (practice does make one perfect, no?) but making something from scratch, knowing the ingredients, saving money, all matters no?
What you buy from the store, you can make it home, preservative free for half the price, literally! My favorite place to buy fresh, good quality masalas is Empress Market. I visit once a month, acquire all the basic masalas and get home making different spice mixes the very same day. I also grind the black pepper powder at home. It’s pretty easy and freshly ground pepper at home tastes absolutely amazing.