Cleaning spices is an important step as it increases the shelf life of your garam masala. So Clean the bay leaf and inner part of cinnamon stick with a dry or damp cloth to remove dirt. or dust.

Break open the nutmeg and check for worms.

Pick and discard stones and debris from all the spices.

A word of caution- do not toast the spices on high heat or burn them. Heat a pan & add cardamoms, bay leaf, star anise, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, cloves and pepper.

Roast them on a low heat without burning until they begin to smell good & turn crunchy. Transfer to a large tray/plate.

Add coriander seeds and roast on a low heat until they turn slightly deep golden or light brown but not burnt. They smell good & turn crunchy when they are ready. Transfer this as well to the plate.

Add fennel seeds & dry roast until aromatic. They don't need to be toasted for long. Transfer these to the same cooling tray. Add cumin & repeat roasting until cumin begins to smell good & the color changes slightly deeper but not burnt.

Transfer to the same plate and cool completely.

Add all these spices to a spice grinder jar. Grind to a fine powder, in intervals of 40 to 60 seconds.

If you do not own a powerful grinder, sieve the garam masala and powder the coarse spices again. If you have a small grinder, grind in 2 batches.

Store this garam masala powder in an air tight dry glass jar.