Garam Masala is an essential ingredient for making a proper Indian curry.

Garam Masala is a blend of spices, including cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, black peppercorns, nutmeg and mace and is always added towards the end of the cooking procedure as this is one of the spices which looses flavour the quickest.

Garam means hot, in the sense that the spices in the masala are said to increase body temperature.

Many different regions of India make various varieties of Garam Masala and each mixture will vary from household to household.

At home and at my father's Indian restaurant, we make our own Garam Masala with seventeen different spices - but Garam Masala is now readily available in all good supermarkets. A curry is just not the same without garam masala, so don't forget to add it right at the end.