Pre coocked Bhuna Masala for Super Fast Meals

I had done a post on how to quick meal prep ideas for busy women here. I am a working mom who makes the family meals in the morning. I try my best to make a curry, 2 veggies and a salad. All this and more (tea and breakfast) needs to be accomplished within an hour while my little munchkin is hovering around.

To make my life easier I make bhuna masala in advance and freeze it in zip lock bags. I use it for pulaos, veggies, meat, poultry. Basically for a lot of recipes. It saves me 20 minutes of chopping and cooking time. Though I had done a post on this earlier. I am recapping it with visuals today.

Here is what you do: Use the chopper to chop 5-6 onions and 3-4 tomatoes. I use this compact Essenza Chopper. Its makes the chopping super easy breezy.

 

Put some oil and whole garam masala in a rice cooker added the onions, salt as per taste and let it sauté for 15 minutes. The advantage of using the rice cooker is that you do not have to stand in front of the stove for the whole 40 minutes. You can stir occasionally and let the cooker do the rest.The masala doesn't burn as the cooker turns off automatically when most of the moisture is gone and turns back on when the temperature drops. And even if its sticks to the bottom a little, it comes off easily as the rice cooker pot is nonstick. But if you do not have a rice cooker you can do this in any wok or pan..

Recipe continued......Add 3-4 tblspns of ginger garlic paste, 2-3 tblspns of red chili powder, 1 tspn of turmeric powder and sauté for 5 minutes. Now add the tomatoes and let it cook for 20 minutes in the rice cooker. Stir occasionally. You will know that the masala is done when the oil starts to separate. 

I store these in zip lock bags now as it is easier to take the masala out when needed compared to storage containers.

This is a must do weekly ritual for me.

Love,

Z