Duck Legs Braised with Indian Spices: Garam Masala Spice Mixture

The closest most of us get to authentic Indian cooking is our use of a little curry powder. This is a pity, since adding curry powder to every Indian dish is roughly analogous to using the same dried herb mix for any dish that’s French. The greatness of Indian cooking is its subtle use of various spice mixtures.

I got the idea for this recipe from Julie Sahni’s wonderful primer, Classic Indian Cooking. In her book, Sahni describes two spice mixtures that are almost universal in nort