For a couple of years now, I’ve incorporated Indian style foods in our diet, to increase our vegetable consumption. Not only is this healthier than our previous all-you-can-eat meat diet, it also provides lots of fiber and prevents many maladies. One of note is that dreaded occurrence of gout, which manifests itself through a very painful arthritic attack of the foot joints, especially the big toes.
With this plant-based diet, I have also lost some weight and with yoga, I feel great. Mind you, I still sometimes divulge in a meat dish, but not as frequent as before. I believe this semi-vegetarian diet suits us.
The secret I believe in Indian dishes is the use of aromatic spices, which turns a plain cabbage and bean dish into an enjoyable one. I use the seeds, and then the ground spices later in the sautee.
First I heat up some coconut oil in a small pot, drop cumin, black mustard, coriander seeds and a clove or cardamom seeds, and after a minute, add diced onions, and cook until soft. Then I slide in some minced garlic, ginger, and chili peppers, and garamm masala. This is a combo of spices, and my version is 1 part turmeric, cayenne, and 2 parts cumin, coriander, and cinnamon.
So you can imagine that I had a dozen spice containers and shaking each in the pot to get the amiunt I need. It was a fun chore, but I thought this process could be easier. I know that the Indian cooks use a spice box called masala dabba. Some are round cans with small round cans inside that held the spices; and some are square boxes with small sa=quare compartments.
Well, I do have some spare wood lying around, and thought maybe I can make a project out of it.
I used some 1×4 boards which I cut and ripped, using my Rockwell table saw. Not real perfect cuts, but to me, good enough. I glued the joints, sanded two pieces of plywood, stained them, and attached them into a box with a lid. Yesterday I bought small 3/4″ hinges, and voila!
Can’t wait to make a simple bean stew!
Spice Box Index
Top row: Cardamom , Coriander, Fennel seeds, Mustard seeds
Middle row: Ground Coriander, Cloves\Peppercorns, Cayenne, Cumin seeds
Bottom row: Ground Cumin, Turmeric, Bay leaves, Ground Cinnamon
BreadQuest 