OUR FEATURE
Most people, even those who love Indian food and cook it often, tend to think that it is complicated to make, takes forever and needs a long list of ingredients to make the dish any good. The fact that every region of India has a different cuisine adds to this belief.
The first step to understanding and to simplifying Indian cookery is to get to know the spices. I have always believed that one should need only a few spices to add a little sparkle to each recipe. Gone are the days of no refrigeration when one needed to add huge quantities of spices to preserve foods. Today we have access to first class ingredients, prime cuts of meat, fish that has barely been caught and vegetables that shine with flavour and texture.
This means that spices need to act as supporting cast to this vast array of flavours, gently lifting and harmonising tastes. Taste is at the heart of Indian cooking and the skill at balancing the six tastes is what makes a good chef a great one. These are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent and hot. Spices contribute to the palette of taste. For example, cardamom adds sweetness, and cumin can add bitterness.
You should need no more than a few basic spices to create a wonderful curry. These are the nine spices that can always be found in my kitchen.
CUMIN
Cumin is the seed of a small, slender annual herb of the coriander family. The brown variety is commonly used in everyday cooking whereas black cumin or ‘kala jeera’ is used in rich curries. The seeds of ‘kala jeera’ are smaller and finer than those of brown cumin. Cumin has a distinctive aroma that has been described as peculiar, strong and bitter and it has a warm, somewhat bitter taste.
Many recipes for salads and barbeques call for roasted cumin seed powder. To make this, simply toast a teaspoonful of cumin seeds in a dry saucepan. As the seeds begin to darken, shake them about a bit to stop them from burning and empty them into a mortar. A few bashes should turn them to a powder.
TURMERIC
One of the most traditional and versatile of spices used in Indian cooking, turmeric is the very heart and soul of any curry. A member of the ginger family, turmeric grows best in a tropical climate. It has an earthy, sensual fragrance reminiscent of the aridness of vast fields. On its own, it has a musky, dry taste, but it is used wholeheartedly in Indian cooking for its wonderful quality of enhancing and balancing the flavours of all the other ingredients. However, be careful not to use too much turmeric when cooking green vegetables as they will turn grey and taste bitter.
CORIANDER
This pretty herb is the most commonly used garnish in India, and adds a dewy-green touch to red or brown curries. Seeds of the coriander plant are the spice.
The seeds have a sweet, heady aroma with a subtle whiff of pine and pepper. Roasted coriander powder is an indispensable item in the spice box and cool yoghurt-based salad and drinks like raita and lassi are dusted with it for a delicious zing. To make this, dry toast the seeds in a small pan and crush in a mortar.
MUSTARD SEEDS
Mustard seeds are widely used in south Indian cooking. They are also used in the tempering of dishes where oil is heated until almost smoking, the seeds are fried quickly and the whole mixture is poured over the dish. In Bengal, mustard seeds are crushed into a paste for use in fiery marinades and curries that can shock the senses.
Black or brown mustard seeds are preferred for their distinctive, acrid, baked-earth aroma that dominates any dish. The seeds are sharp, nutty, slightly bitter and aromatic. Their heat is often misjudged, so be careful when adding them to recipes. Mustard oil is a popular cooking medium in regional Indian cookery. Buy small amounts of the seeds and store in a clean, dry jar. Mustard seeds from clumps when wet which makes them difficult to use when cooking. Stored properly, they last up to year.
CHILLIES
Indian food without chillies is like summer without sunshine. That is not to say that all Indian food scorches the taste buds, rather that it is an amicable blend of heat, fragrance and flavour. Given the importance of this spice today, it is surprising that until about 400 years ago, chillies were unknown in India. They were first introduced by the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century.
Fresh chillies come in various shades of green from lime to olive. The ripe fruits are red and these are dried until they look like dark crumpled rubies. Chillies have a strong, smarting aroma and their taste ranges from mild to dynamite. The level of heat is dependent on the amount of capsaicin present in the seeds, veins and skin of the chillies and is not diminished by cooking, storing, or freezing.
Chillies actually cool us down in hot weather. The capsaicin dilates blood vessels to increase circulation and encourages perspiration. However, if you do bite into one, don’t reach for a jug of water – capsaicin is insoluble in water but dairy products have the power to neutralise it so try yoghurt or milk.
All chillies need to be treated with respect. The capsaicin in chillies is highly irritant to skin, so be careful when preparing them. Try to avoid contact with the inside of the fruit so use less chillies if you prefer a mild dish rather than scraping the seeds out.
SAFFRON
India and Spain are the only major producers of saffron which is the dried stigmas of the Crocus sativus, a perennail bulb which flowers for just two weeks in late October.
Saffron is so light that 750,000 handpicked flowers yield only about 450g (1lb). When fresh, it is bright and glossy, but exposure to light and air makes it dull and brittle. Pure saffron is believed to be able to colour and flavour 70,000 times its weight in liquid. Its intense, musky aroma suffuses any room in which a box of saffron is opened and the taste is slightly bitter but richly perfumed.
In Indian cookery, saffron enhances savoury food as well as sweet. A few strands soaked in a little warm water or milk and added along with the liquid to the dish add a fragrant richness. It especially complements milk desserts, rice and chicken.
CARDAMOM
There are many varieties of cardamom, the true one being the green cardamom. The fat, green pods grown in Kerala, south India, are considered the best in the world. Cardamom pods differ according to the variety. They are all oval capsules containing between 10 to 40 hard, dark brown seeds that are sticky and cling together. Cardamom is prized for its seeds, while the skin of the pod is thrown away.
Whole cardamom seeds have a sweet flavour and a mild, pleasant aroma. As soon as they are crushed, they release a strong fragrance and if chewed, the taste is bitter-sweet, aromatic and lingering. Buy the whole pods with the freshness sealed in. Grind the seeds in a mortar or in a small food processor.
Indian savouries and sweets are both flavoured with cardamom. This fragrant spice is used in rich curries and milky desserts. In India tea and coffee are sometimes spiked with cardamom.
ASAFOETIDA
Asafoetida is the dried latex from the rhizomes of several species of ferula or giant fennel. It is grown chiefly in Iran and Afghanistan from where it is exported to the rest of the world.
Asafoetida has a pungent, unpleasant smell quite like that of pickled eggs, due to the presence of sulphur compounds. On its own it smells vile awful but it is added to most Indian savouries as it can add a curry like flavour to a dish. Its powerful aroma complements lentils, vegetables and pickles. It is always used in small quantities –a tiny pinch added to hot oil before the other ingredients is enough to flavour a dish for four.
GARAM MASALA
Every Indian dish, whether eaten under the swaying coconut palms of Tamil Nadu or in the fiery deserts of Rajasthan, is flavoured with a distinct blend of spices. Some simple vegetarian curries may have just a sprinkling of mustard seeds and turmeric but a rich north Indian meat curry simmers for hours in a mixture of up to 15 different spices.
Most homes will keep a stock of ready ground blends called masala. Each region of India has its own special blend depending availability, climate and methods of cooking. In the north, where the winters are bitterly cold, a blend called garam masala, meaning hot spice, is preferred. Some of the most expensive spices go into the making of garam masala and there are as many recipes for it as there are households in India.
The basic blend includes cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, peppercorns, bay leaf, mace, cumin and coriander seeds. Garam masala has a rich, warm fragrance and tastes hot and aromatic.
Commercially-produced garam masala is quite good but needs to be used up quickly as it does not seem to retain its flavour for very long. Buy small quantities ■
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