I’m Jeffrey Saad. Today, we’re talking about Garam Masala and don’t be afraid because the hardest thing about the spice is pronouncing it. Once you passed that, it is as easy as using garlic powder.
There are five spices that typically go into Garam Masala. The first two are the warm comfortable baking spices that you probably know. Cinnamon and nutmeg; nutmeg I think eggnog, cumin, pungent, earthy with a slight bitterness to it, black pepper, we all love that black pepper heat mild spice. But the star of this mixture is cardamom. It’s in the ginger family. It has kind of a eucalyptus smell. The key is when you blend these five spices together, it’s the ultimate warming spice. It’s kind of like a mild version occurring without the heat but with that same warming effect.
Now, do you know what Garam Masala is? I’m going to use it in a classic comfort food, chicken pot pie, nothing radically different but we’re going to add a toasty warmth and a ton of flavors. First thing we’re going to do is season our chicken, a little bit of salt, a little bit of pepper and of course the reason we’re here some of our Garam Masala. This is going to give some depth season in the chicken really well. Now, we have our oil hot, we’re going to add these chicken thighs to the pan. They’re going to get seared, you could hear that going already. So, once these are nice and brown, I’m going to take those out of the pan and I can already smell the cardamom, the earthiness of the cumin coming off the chicken.
Alright so in our oil that we have now in these nice bits of chicken, we’re going to add our vegetables. One carrot which is sliced thin, two chopped shallots, got a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, just a minute or two is all you need and that will be perfect. And you can see we got those nice bits of chicken sticking to the pan, the garlic, the shallots. That’s going to be the base for our sauce already. We’re going to add some butter about two tablespoons, whisk in our flour. Once we see that incorporated and getting smooth, we’re going to add three cups chicken stock. We’re going to add our potatoes. The potatoes, you’re going to want to cook just until they’re firmed but not quite done because they’re going to finish cooking in the oven.
So now, we’re going to chop this chicken into nice tender chunks and let’s going to go back into the sauce—is great to use in this kind of a thing because it keeps so much more moisture as it simmers in the sauce it will stay nice and tender. We’re going dump that into the sauce. Now our peas are going to be a little sweet. And then the star we’ve been waiting for our Garam Masala, the whole reason I’m making this pot pie. I’m going to put about a tablespoon and a half. We’re going to leave a little bit of the extra and we’re going to put that under the pasty dough. Almost any cream sauce, a little bit of Garam Masala is incredible. I’ve got the sauce the right consistency so now we’re going to fill our bowls. I like to use this oven proof bowls. You can use whatever you want as long as they’re oven proof. You don’t want to fill them to the top because you want to leave room for the pastry so it gets nice and light, with the pot pie without pastries so we’re going to put that on top. I love using this. It’s just the frozen box of puff pastry. It doesn’t matter what the size is because we want it to be rustic hang off the sides, just kind of pinch it on the edges so it stays.
Now, we’re going to brush it with a little bit of olive oil that’s going to help make it nice and golden and crisp. Just when you thought we’re done with the Garam Masala, we’re sprinkling on top. And now the moment we’ve been waiting for into the oven 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden and lovely. Alright, this is exactly what we wanted golden brown and the perfume of Garam Masala. That creamy texture is what makes the puff pie such a classic but this Garam Masala is what kicks it up and notch. You are going to love this.
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