Masala Dabba, there is no Indian house-hold that does not have one. This is known as an Indian Spice Box, it can be found sold in local spice shops, spices not included.

Now this is a handy little thing that helps with storing your main spices neatly, usually most Indian spices are bought in bulk or plastic packets and so to keep using from that packet will cause an unwanted mess, makes clean up such a hassle and lets be honest its not good on the eyes either. With this tin box, you can keep topping up spices that finish, also its easy to store, use and you will never forget a spice.

It can be found it a whole different range of sizes, so if you tend to cook Indian cuisine once in a blue moon or every day you can choose to your liking. There are small differences when it comes to what spices to store from house-hold to house-hold, there are some staples that must always be in your spice box, but the rest can be what dry spices you usually add or prefer.

In my masala dabba/spice box I find the spices stored in are staples, and are the base in literally every Indian recipe.


WHAT MY MASALA DABBA HAS:

Turmeric (yellow colouring)
Paprika (fresher the better)
Salt
Ground cumin
Ground coriander seeds
Taj/Indian Bay leaf - if you see pictures of this they look like sticks - I would say checking your spice shop for them instead of using just a normal bay leaf
Whole cardamom
Whole Pepper
Cloves

You must be thinking how big is your tin, there are times one spice is replaced by another in the tin, ideally that is how it usually is.
Also, most people mix their ground cumin and ground coriander together and store it as one.

Now I know some people also put gharam masala (combination of all dry spices freshly ground together) or even cinnamon that's entirely up to one-self and what your taste buds like.
If you are a beginner to Indian food, or you think its time to learn how to cook I would say take a good look and even smell these spices because you will be using them quite often!

It takes practice but as you learn to cook and when you start making marinades you will learn to use your instincts when it comes to measurements of the spices. I would say in the start make your marinade first than taste when you feel it tastes fine than add your meat, because it was save you from making an error and trust me we have all been there.

This is just a quick post explaining what a masala dabba/spice box is and what are the main spices stored in it.
I do plan to post once a week a new Indian spice, the low-down on it, what it looks like, what it smells and tastes like and what its mainly used for,
Any questions or comments, and if you feel I have missed any key points in this post let me know. Feel free to like, share and subscribe to this website for personalised emails on all updates.

Yummy! STEPS:  Top with fried chips

Layer the cooked chicken and chicken gravy in the dish

Next boiled noodles, more cheese and dry parsley. Also pour fresh cream around the edges so it does not burn in the oven. Baked for 15 minutes, remember just to melt the cheese and the fresh cream to mix well with the dish,

Next top with cheese

So I kind off played around in the kitchen the other and came up with this dish, I'm not sure if there is any other chip pasta dish, so if you have a recipe please share on my group and you may be featured on my website.

So I would suggest more chips, I used 2 medium potatoes in this dish, next I would probably use 4 and actually layer the chips before the meat as well. 

MEAT MARINADE

• Use chicken fillet cut into cubes, around 1 1/2 inch because they do shrink when being cooked. 
• Peri-peri sauce
• Salt/Pepper
• Tumeric 
• Cumin
• Ground coriander
• Paprika
• Lemon juice 
• Ground red chillies
• Ground garlic
• Machachos mild dry chilli powder (local spicy shop, but I'm not sure if it can be found world wide, but you can in Southern Africa - so I suggest any mild dry spice)
• Zesty Lemon Pepper spice

1. Marinate the chicken, again with spices it depends on your taste so add according to what you like. 
2. Cook on a low heat till the meat is done, also add a bit of water so it does not dry up. 
3. You can braise some onions in olive oil before cooking the meat (vagaar), I kind of skipped this step that day but you can if you want to.
4. While the chicken is being cooked, peel your potatoes. Like I said I underestimated how much I would need for this dish (I used 2) so I suggest 4, and you layer some before your meat. So it would be chips, cheese, meat, chips, cheese, pasta and cheese.
5. Boil some noodles according to much you will be needing, be careful don't over boil since it will be going in the oven, and make sure to season with salt.
6. After layering everything, pour some fresh cream around sides of the dish, I used 250ml of fresh cream - this is just to add more flavour and also to stop drying to much. If you see that your meat with very saucy after cooking than just use half of the fresh cream. Be careful you don't want it extremely saucy - you can also use white sauce instead of fresh cream.
7. Cover in aluminium foil. Preheat your oven for 5 mins, than bake at around 180 degrees for around 15 minutes  - this is not to cook anything! You're just melting the cheese and heating the dish, keeping for too long will result in really hard overcooked pasta.
8. Garnish with parsley. 

So this lovely recipe was given to my mum who by Aysha Karolia, my dad loves loves loves donna kababs, now I know its probably not close to how the British make it but we can try lol, literally all he rants about when it comes to speaking about "back home" food wise. 

CHICKEN MARINADE:

• For this you're going to use chicken fillet, which you will cut into strips.
• Ground ginger
• Ground garlic
• Tandoori Powder (which I'm sure you now can find in your supermarkets or spice shops)
• Paprika
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Peri-peri sauce
• (A bit of) cinnamon powder
• Fresh lemon juice
• (Pinch of) turmeric
• Chilli powder
• Olive oil

1. Marinate the chicken overnight.
2. We cooked this on a sizzler type of griller, but any griller will do as long as its not the open type of griller because your meat will fall through the grids.