Turmeric is one of the traditional spices for Indian dishes, but recently turmeric has also found its way into coffee shops around the world in the form of “golden lattes” - and, most recently, into viral messages that claim it can “boost your immune system” and protect you from getting sick. There are so many varieties of spices and ingredients Indian cuisine uses - both whole and ground, which are often combined into complex spice mixes. As soon as people are able to identify and understand the spices Indian cuisines use, they’ll find those cuisines are not as hard to make after all.
Here are the three spices the Indian dishes are mostly prepared with.
Using Indian Spices
With a few exceptions like nutmeg, most Indian spices are dry-roasted to release their essential oils before being ground into spice mixes.
#1. Cardamom
You will find two kinds of cardamom used in the Indian dishes - green and black. Green is a more common variety, which is used for everything from spice mixes to lassis to Indian desserts. Its flavour is light and sweet. Green cardamom can be blended whole while making spice mixes, like garam masala. Black cardamom is also very powerful and smoky. Its seeds are usually used. If using the whole pod, it’s best to pull it out before serving the dish, as it can be very spicy to bite into.
Rogan Josh can be cooked with cardamom.
#2. Clove
Clove is a common spice in Indian cooking. You can easily recognize it from its anise notes in many Indian preparations. The strong, almost medicinal flavor of clove comes from the concentration of essential oils.
Technically flowers, a lot of clove oils are pressed out before they are dried and used in cooking. You can use cloves as whole or blended into spice mixes. However, you need to be careful while using cloves, because any overuse of cloves can overpower more delicate spices.
Coconut Chicken Curry can be prepared with cloves
#3: Black Pepper
Hillary Clinton reportedly ate one chilli pepper a day while on the campaign trail in an attempt to ward off illness. Though native to India, black pepper is popular worldwide as a taste enhancer. Like most spices, you need to toast black pepper before blending. Fresh black pepper can also be ground directly into dishes for the best flavor.
Cook Indian Chili Chicken with Black Pepper
Loving these spices? There are many more and using them so many varieties of Indian dishes are prepared with fantastic flavours, such as star anise, mace and black cardamom!
Where to Buy Indian spices?
You may often find yourself clueless about the best place to buy spices from India in the UK. But you can now buy Asian spices online.
TajSpices Wholesale Limited carries entire varieties of spices - ground spices, whole spices, masala products. For those who are looking for ready-made mixtures composed of rich spices, TajSpices Wholesale Limited is the best place to buy Indian spices, available with a selection of blends made in fresh small batches.
