Garam Masala Sauce

Near my home, is a wonderful store, Patel Brothers.  It is an Indian Grocery store in a very Indian neighborhood.  This store has the best selection of herbs and spices and everything Indian.  I bought the whole Garam Masal spice/herb mixture from here.  I love all the Indian food.  A lot of it I have no idea what it is and I feel a little awkward being so white when I walk through this store, but it is so fun to see all the imported Indian food.  I think I now understand why all the fuss from the early explorers trying to get to India the fastest way possible.

I would have gladly made Garam Masala Chicken tonight with my Patel Brothers finds, but my children requested chicken nuggets.  This is my compromise.  I made Garam Masala Sauce to dip the chicken nuggets in for our American take on Indian food.  You may use this sauce to cook chicken in if you want Garam Masala chicken (curry chicken).

 Beautiful color, don't you think?  This is the start of yummy Indian food.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 tablespoon whole Garam Masala spice/herb blend, 1 cup
whole tomatoes in puree, 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon
cardamon pods, 6 cloves of peeled garlic, 1 inch piece of ginger peeled, 1 teaspoon turmeric,
 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup yogurt (I used homemade, recipe found
  here).  You may use ground spices instead, be sure to skip the next three steps.

 Toast all the whole spices and herbs in a dry pan until they begin to become fragrant.

 Grind spices and herbs in a spice(coffee) grinder until fine.  Sift mixture through a sieve to
remove larger pieces.

 Puree tomatoes, add half the spice mixture and yogurt together in a small sauce pan.  Cook
sauce on low for 10 minutes at least. 

Store sauce in a lidded container.  Eat with the chicken nuggets we made earlier, or cook it with
 chicken like they do in Indian curry.

Enjoy!