What is Tandoori Masala Spice Mix?
Tandoori masala spice mix is an Indian spice blend and has many uses, but is often used to season meats that would traditionally be cooked in a tandoori clay oven. The spice blend is made from cumin, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, chilies and turmeric. These ingredients may vary some, but cumin is a primary ingredient. The flavors are savory, spicy and warming.
What does Tandoori Masala Spice Mix Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Spicy is a flavor that brings heat and fire to food by creating a burning sensation in the mouth or sinuses. Spicy flavors come from hot peppers, horseradish, and wasabi. Spicy adds a kick and sometimes complexity to a dish and releases endorphins, creating a mildly addictive quality.
Ingredients
Cumin is a spice used in many cuisines around the world. The seed which cumin is ground from, has a thin and long body with tapered ends. Cumin is just a few millimeters in length and has a light brown or tan tone, which can look a bit grey. The flavor is spicy, earthy and nutty.
Coriander is the seed of the cilantro plant. These seeds are a warm beige color with a round and slightly oblong body and a pointy, yet harmless top. The seeds taste citrusy, warm, nutty and spicy. Coriander is popular in various cuisines, including Indian and Latin cooking.
Cloves are the buds of the Syzygium aromaticum tree. They are dried and can be used whole or ground as a spice. Cloves have a strong, sweet and peppery flavor that can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.
Ground cinnamon is a fine aromatic powder made from the bark of the cinnamon tree, also known as cassia; another variety. The bark is peeled from the tree, dried and ground into the warm brown powder that is known as cinnamon. The flavor is spicy, warm and sweet and savory at the same time. It is extremely popular in many cuisines and common in American desserts.
Ginger is a spice whose root is used in food around the world. The root is grown underground and has a hard body and thin, beige skin. The root has many rounded and long shoots and is often fat. The flesh of the ginger is golden colored with a flavor that is earthy, spicy and bright. Ground ginger is made from the dried ginger root and has a powdery texture that is an earthy golden color. The flavor is similar, but not as spicy and is often used in Western desserts.
Garlic powder is made from dehydrated garlic cloves that have been ground into a super fine powder. This powder is a pale yellow/golden color and is used to flavor foods. It works well in a pinch and can be used in many of the same ways that fresh garlic is used. The flavor is milder than raw or cooked garlic and is spicy, pungent and nutty. Garlic granules are another form of dehydrated garlic, but rather than powder it is coarser and has the same function. It is often used on top of fresh pizza, as a light dusting.
Botanically the chili pepper is a fruit, in culinary terms it is a vegetable. There are a number of varieties of red chili peppers. Some common ones used for spice powders include the piri piri, cayenne, pasilla, New Mexico chile and chile de árbol, among others. Each pepper is red and has a thin skin, with a thin flesh and seeds inside the middle of the pepper. The peppers are dried and ground into a powder that can be used in cooking. The heat level of each kind of red chili will vary as will the flavor, but it is always hot and some may be smoky, will others are earthy or bright.
Turmeric is the root of a flowering plant and is used as a spice. The root is woody, but easy to cut and looks similar to ginger. Rather than growing in clusters, each root is a several or so inches long, cylindrical and 1 or more inches in diameter. The thin skin is a brownish-orange and protects the inner root which is bright orange, like a carrot. Turmeric dyes everything it touches and leaves a golden color. The flavor is earthy, pungent and slightly bitter. It has numerous uses, including flavoring and coloring food.
Mace comes from the lacy red coating around nutmeg. Mace is dried and ground into a powder used as a seasoning in desserts and some savory dishes. Occasionally it is sold whole. The color is a warm brownish orange. The flavor is delicate and similar to nutmeg, with a warm spicy taste that is reminiscent of a pungent cinnamon.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
