If you want to enjoy freshly ground cumin in your home cooking, then the best way is to prepare it yourself. Here are the steps you'll need to follow to ensure it turns out properly every time.
Step one - Gather the items you will need, which, in this case, means a skillet or frying pan, a pestle and mortar, and enough cumin seeds for the recipe you are preparing.
Step two - Begin by toasting the cumin seeds to start bringing out their full flavour. Although this isn’t necessary, doing so will help some of the natural cumin oils to escape from their pods, allowing for more strength in the ensuing cumin powder.
Step three - Put a skillet or frying pan onto the hob with low to medium heat and allow the pan to come up to cooking temperature. For toasting, there is no need to add oil.
Step four - With the pan at cooking temperature, lower the heat and carefully pour the cumin seeds in, allowing them to move freely over its surface.
Step five - Remove the cumin seeds from the pan once they’re done. You will be able to tell they are toasted when you begin to smell a more pungent aroma. The seeds will darken a little as well, but make sure you don’t overdo it because they will blacken and become bitter. Between two and three minutes should be sufficient.
Step six - Transfer some of the toasted seeds into a mortar or another suitably durable bowl for pounding. Grinding them bit by bit, rather than all in one go, helps to ensure they all get ground fully.
Step seven - Bash the seeds with the pestle against the bowl until the shards reduce in size to a powder-like consistency. Alternatively, use a food processor and blitz them.
Step eight - Once the cumin powder has been created, add it to the dish you are preparing or store it in a spice jar with a sealable lid.
