Last week, The Hazz and I were invited to have dinner with a couple from our congregation. The wife and her mother (who is NINETY-NINE years old) are from the Jewish community of India. They were sweet enough to prepare for us an amazing dinner of curries, dal, and sent me home with my very own masala mixture.Normally, masala has cumin in it. But last year, I became incredibly allergic to cumin (it's not a fun allergy to have, by the way). My masala contained... cinnamon stick pieces (it's a more flat bark), cloves, star anise, nutmeg, and cardamom. My hostesses gave me instructions to bake briefly or sautee in dry frying pan to bring out flavors. Then, smash a bit with a mortar and pestle and then use a spice grinder. I just used a really clean coffee grinder.
I added 1 tsp of the masala with the flour and mixed throughout. I used my REALLY small batch recipe for this challah. For a 3 cup recipe, I would use 1 1/2 tsp, for 6 cup recipe, not much more than 2 tsp.
The result is... well, it's stunning. It smells VERY strong, but the taste is mild. It's so unexpected... our Ashkenazic, sweet doughy challah meets Indian spices. I'm very pleased.
Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!
