Baharat Blend

Someone in another post for garam masala said to put white rice in the coffee grinder, then grind and discard - wipe and it is clean and ready for the next grind job.

if you'll use it enough, do what i did and get a grinder with a removable stainless steel cup that you can wash. mine was cheap and i love that i can just clean the cup with soap and water so i don't have to worry about any crossover flavors/aromas between uses. i also find it much easier/less messy when pouring the spices out that i don't have to pick up the whole base.

Bay leaves don’t disintegrate during cooking, so you take them out to prevent biting into a leathery bit of leaf or accidentally swallowing something that will stick in your throat. They are completely safe to eat and, if your blender can handle them, don’t need to be taken out before pureeing soups, either. A spice/coffee grinder will pulverize them, so texture/mouthfeel/swallowing aren’t an issue here.

I have used commercial baharat spice many times and have made my own on a few occasions. The spices are not stable for very long after mixing, especially the cardamom which loses its flavor rapidly. I keep mine in a glass jar in the freezer and figure it is ok for maybe a few months. Do not plan on making a year's supply of this spice as it will deteriorate as I discovered last week when I made an chicken dish.

There's nothing unsafe about eating a whole bay leaf. It's just an unpleasant texture. When you grind it finely, that problem goes away and you have bay leaf flavor that can be used in other applications.

I use coarse salt to clean the Krups coffee grinder I've dedicated to spices. The fine salt that comes out can be used to add additional flavor to a dish. Wiping out with a damp paper towel finishes the job.

You will be sorry if you put in the full amount of nutmeg. Produces a medicinal off-taste in what you make with this

If this is your first run at this, you might want to dial back a bit on the cloves and nutmeg. It's easy for these spices to overwhelm a soup or stew.

Once a coffee grinder, always a coffee grinder. I bought another grinder just for spices. They aren’t tremendously expensive or large. I clean my spice grinder with rice but most of the time I don’t care all that much about cross contamination. After grinding spices that were first toasted in oil, I run some plain panko through the grinder, then brush it out with a small brush.

BTW, just made this blend per the recipe (by weight, since by volume is not reliable), and it smells wonderful.

I actually was gifted a number of these spice blends, including baharat. I wish there was more recipes to use them beyond the uselessly vague suggestions in the intro.