We take you through the making of the legendary and top-secret East Indian bottle masala.
Just before the monsoons, Mumbai's Machados, Pereiras and Ferreiras, all residents of East Indian gaothans (villages), convert their terraces and courtyards into a hotbed of red chillies to grind the famous East Indian bottle masala.
Our introduction to this ambrosial reddish-orange powder, which can unleash a punch into any dish — from Bombay duck curry to bhendi fry — was on a hot afternoon a decade ago. The sweltering heat had melted the edges of a newly-tarred lane in Bandra; school kids mocked a crooning koel as they twirled twigs in the melted asphalt to make black lollies. Suddenly, their chatter and the smell of tar were replaced by rhythmic thudding, and the aroma of roasted spices.
Amboli, Andheri, Malad or Vasai in summer, and chances are that you'll witness the desi spice girl show. The mavshis are professional pounders, booked months in advance to make the masala out of whole spices, and seal it in dark glass bottles to use all through the year. The dark bottle helps protect the masala from sunlight, and its tiny mouth makes it the perfect sprinkler.
Like with the Nunes, it's usually the family matriarch who bequeaths the recipe to the next generation. The precise quantity of the 25 or 35 spices used (dry red chillies, coriander, cumin, triphala, til, zaiphal, cloves, kebabchini, badi/chhoti elaichi and lichen among others), and the sequence in which they are mixed, is a heavilyguarded secret.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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