I find whenever I eat shan masala or similar where the entire packet has been used for a curry, I get an upset stomach. But then I do have a delicate stomach.
For me, its not too much more time consuming to open a few jars and add my own masalas than it is to open a packet masala.
My spice cupboard has the following from memory:
Bay leaves
Cinnamon sticks
Whole black cardamom
Green cardamom
Whole clove
Whole black peppercorns
Whole cumin seeds
Whole fennel seeds
Curry leaves
Degghi methi
Dried mint
Chilli powder
Tumeric
Corriander powder
Garlic powder
Ginger powder
Ground cumin
Amchoor
Garam Masla (home made and shop bought)
Kachiri
Black mustard seeds
Brown mustard seeds
Crusshed chillies
Birds eye chillies
Kasmiri mirch
Onions/nigella seeds
Sesame seeds
Methi seeds
Corriander seeds
Poppy seeds
Ground cardamom
Ground cloves
Whole dried ginger
Saffron
Kewra
Rose water
Paprika
Oregano
Basil
Mixed herbs
Garlic salt
Mixed peppercorns
Ground almonds
Ground cashews
Dessicated coconut
Food colouring
I love love love Shaan ke masalay. I do make them differently sometimes then what it says on the box. Everything turns out good. I also have a lot of regular spices. I use both. If I want to make korma, biryani etc I use Shaan. Regular spices are used mainly when I get recipes from cooking shows or online.
Personally,I don't think it's a matter of using modern conveniences (shan masalas) as opposed to going back to the middle ages (sil batta ).For me,it's the art of cooking that I was losing touch of.
Before Shan masalas,I could make decent qormas,biriyanis,kebabs etc.,using ammi's/nani's recipes,but going along with the jhatt patt concept,I started using these,but tbh,I prefer home made ones.I mean,you still have to cut and brown onions anyways,after which it's just a short hop to adding the spices.
That's not to say I don't use them at all,I do.However....I think they have far too much mirchi.
Hopefully,I will be able to teach my daughter to cook without Shan..:)
I agree, I am also one of those who was taught to cook from scratch from my mother, and although i do use Shan (very rarely) I prefer to do it all myself, simply because i stock all the ingrediants and know how to cook it from scratch, and you can't beat the taste of fresh masala's made from home.
Those of you who are pro-scratchers (err, who like masala from scratch); are you still warming your food using metal pot and open fire (vs microwave)? Are you still using sil batta vs electrical grinder? Are you still heating your water, pouring in balti and mixing with cold water to take bath or using warm water tap instead?Get over with your 'oh I am so back to basic kind of person' and admit that we live in a society where we dont have 10 hours to cook one dish so its ok to use pre-mix masala.
Ure doing something horribly wrong if its taking u 10 hours to cook a dish :p And i stick to my opinion that home spices are better an shaan packet.... Ive never had biryani or nihari or haleem taste good if its been made from a packet mix.... Not all their spices are bad though.... I like thwir chicken handi mix. It boils down to a) is the person a new cook and b) how much they cook that its feasible to buy all the diff spices... I know a lot of ppl that dont cuz they dont cook that often for various reasons. Packet mix works out for themAnd maybe c) if they have time to cook when a dish calls for 20 diff spices
u know one thing that really annoys me about those pakcet masalas....is that on the back they put quantities in metric and the other kind....I mean one ingredient will say grams, while the other ingredient is measured in cups/ounces....why can't they stick to just one standard measurement!
I think shops buy from sellers in diff countries.... I know that measuring oprions differ country to country and most companies write out recipes using the measurement method common in tat countryExample... In arabia they use cups to measure..... In denmark, same comapny will have the recipes written out usinf decilitres. Its not just with this,.... But the level of spicyness differs country to country too! Whenever we used packet mix to make biryani in canada, mom used 2 packs cuz it just wasnr spicy.... Move onto making the same amount in arabia...only use 1 pack and it turns out quite spicy... I was a bit surprised over that!
I think we should see shan masalas for what they are; A convenience that saves you time to do other things which are perhaps more productive and life enhancing. I mean I can crush masalas at home if I had no other choice, but I do have that choice, so I will spend that precious time with my kids instead.:)
as someone who is fairly new to cooking (I just started after I got married 4 months ago), I found that Shan Masala's were a life saver! I would use them alot at the beginning and then as I got more comfortable cooking, and started looking up recipes online, I started to use my own masalas. There are still dishes that I cant make from a recipe (biryani, kebob), so I use Shan Masala (or National, or Ahmed, whatever is available), but there are now quite a few dishes that I make using my own spices.
I think it is perfectly ok to use the Shan Masala packets. I dont think it makes you less of a woman, less of a wife, or less of a mother. Its a convenience that has been given to us, and for some people it's just easier to do it that way.
Shaan masala is full of sodium so I limit my use of it. I make pilau and Qorma from strach but for nihari, murgh choolay and achar gosht I use shaan masala.
erm… haleem and nihari both take time to cook regardless of home spice or packed spice.. ya u save maybe say… 5 mins by mixing the packet masala … but otehrwise… cooking time is the same laddu :chusni:
1 1/2 tspn salt
pinch of haldi
1 tspn of garam masala
1 tspn of red mirch
1 tspn of sukha dhanya powder
Then if im making chicken, i use the laziza masala at the end and just add 1 tspn of that if required..same with anything else eg biryani or shaami kebab etc...
In the olden days, ppl never used these laziza and shaan masale and their dishes tasted wicked then too..so we dont really need these ready made masale :)
