Spices from India

Spices from India: The history and culture of spices is as old as India’s civilization.  It is a history of lands discovered and destroyed, kingdoms built and kingdoms brought down, wars won and wars lost, treaties signed and flouted, favours sought and offered and the rise and fall of different religious practices and beliefs across the country.  Trade in Spices led to India’s early globalization just as silk was China’s early export to the world.

Many Indians believe that spices are a natural way of caring for yourself.  They can not only improve the taste of your food, but can also improve the state of your health.  They are used as appetizers, preservatives, and many with their rich and varied properties are used in pharmaceutical, perfumery, cosmetic products, religious rituals, etc.  In fact, special preparations of spices (also known as nushke) are an integral part of Indian culture and society and helps keep the doctor away.  Here are some of them:

Ajwain

Ajwain/ Carom seed bishop’s weed/ajowan/ajowan seed/ajwon/ajwan

Pronunciation: AHJ-a-wahn

These look like small caraway seeds but they taste like a pungent version of thyme.  Indian cooks like to sprinkle them on breads.

Substitutes: (dried thyme (use more), cumin or caraway.

Medicinal value: cure stomach upsets.

Amchoor

Amchoor/amchur/umchoor/green mango powder/aamchur/amchor

Made from sun-dried mangoes, it’s used as a souring agent or to tenderize meats

Substitutes: lemon juice, lime juice, tamarind, chopped fresh mango (use more) or chopped fresh papaya (use more)

Asofoetida powder

Asofoetida powder/asafetida powder/asafetida/devil’s dung/ferula/foetida/food of the gods/heeng/hing (powder)/imguva

Pronunciation: ASS-uh-FET-a-duh

This powdered gum resin imparts a very strong onion-garlic flavor to Indian dishes.  Use it very sparingly. 

Substitutes: garlic powder or onion powder. This spice generally originates in Afghanistan.

Pepper

Portuguese explorer and sailor Vasco de Gama risked everything  to succeed where Christopher Columbus had failed and found a sea route to India. He came in search of one thing – pepper.  The most common pepper is round, black, shriveled and hard.  White peppercorns are sharper and less pungent but they are smooth and creamy.  Fresh peppercorns look like garlands of plump green berries.  In India, pepper is used in every type of regional cookery.  Meat in the north. Lentils in the south.  Fish in the east. And vegetables in the west.  It’s also used in herbal tea.  Green pepper is pickled and eaten in the regions where it is endemic.

Medicinal values: Black pepper is a stimulant, digestive and diuretic.  It is said to relieve flatulence, colds, amnesia and even impotency.

Chilies (Green Peppers)

Chilies are available fresh, dried, powdered, flaked, in oil, in sauce, bottled and pickled.  The fresh ones [when unripe] come in various shades of green.  The ripe ones are red.  When dried, they look like crumpled rubies.

Chilies are high in Vitamin A & C.  They are also added to medicines to relieve sore throat.  Capsicum preparations are used as counterirritants for lumbago and rheumatic disorders.

Their taste ranges from mild to dynamite.  While they scorch your taste buds, they also blend a little heat and a whole lot of fragrance and flavor to Indian cuisine.  .

Black Mustard Seeds

Indian cooks prefer these over the larger yellow mustard seeds that are more common in the west.

Substitutes: brown mustard seeds (very close), yellow mustard seeds

White Mustard Seeds

These are smaller and hotter than the yellow mustard seeds that most western cooks are familiar with.

Mustard is believed to possess the ability to calm the mind, create a peaceful personality and sharpen intelligence.

Cardamom

Cardamom figures prominently in various types of Indian cuisines.  It is best to buy cardamom seeds still encased in their natural flavor-protecting pods, which you can discard after you remove the seeds.  Brown cardamom is a similar spice that Indians use in savory dishes

Substitutes: brown cardamom, equal parts ground nutmeg and cinnamon, equal parts ground cloves and cinnamon, nutmeg or cinnamon

Medicinal Value: cardamom is aromatic, stimulating and refreshing.  It is said to  rekindle digestive fire, refresh the mind and act as a heart stimulant.  It also relieves gas.

Fenugreek

Fenugreek/fenugreek seeds/methi/halba

Pronunciation: FEN-you-greek

This adds an earthy flavor to the curries, chutneys, and sauces.  It’s available as seeds or powder.

Medicinal Value: useful in inflammatory disorders, joint pains and in diabetes

Nigella

Nigella/black onion seeds/kalonji/calonji/habasoda/ketza/black caraway  Proununciation: ni-JELL-uh

It has a subtle flavor that’s often used to enhance vegetable dishes.  To bring out the flavor, it helps the toast the seeds before using them. 

Substitute: cumin seeds, sesame seeds or oregano

Medicinal value: relief from painful menstruation

Pomegranate seeds

Pomegranate seeds/anardana

Bits of pomegranate pulp remain on the seeds as they dry, so they are a bit sticky and serve as a souring agent in Indian cuisine.  The seeds are also sold in ground form.

White Poppy seeds

White poppy seeds/kas-kas

Indian cooks use these as a thickener in their curries and as a filling in baked goods. 

Substitutes: poppy seeds (black)

Cinnamon          

With its warm sweet flavor, cinnamon is one of the biggest workhorses on the spice shelf.  Cooks often use it to flavor baked goods and drinks but cinnamon also works wonders in stews and sauces.

Substitutes: nutmeg or allspice

Useful for those suffering from acid peptic disease

Cloves 

Cloves are nail-shaped dried flower buds that have a sweet, penetrating flavor.  They can be ground and used to flavor baked goods or sauces or left whole and poked into roasted hams or pork.  Use cloves sparingly.  A little of it goes a long way too.  Substitutes: allspice (as a substitute for ground cloves)

Cumin

Cumin/comino/cumin/jeera

Pronunciation: KUH-min or KYOO-min or KOO-min

In addition to Indian cuisine, cumin is a now a key ingredient in Southwestern chilli recipes.  It’s also widely used in Latin America. Freshly roasted and ground cumin seeds are far superior to packaged ground cumin.

Substitutes: caraway seeds (use half as much), black cumin seeds (smaller and sweeter) or caraway seeds + anise seeds, chilli powder

Helpful during obstetrics

Ground turmeric

Ground turmeric/powdered turmeric/Indian saffron/eastern saffron

Pronunciation: TURR-mer-ick

Turmeric has a pleasant enough flavor but it’s prized more for the brilliant yellow color it imparts to whatever it’s cooked with.  It’s a standard ingredient in curry powders, pickles, and prepared mustards.

It is a traditional remedy for jaundice in both  Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal medicine.  It is also used to ease liver complaints and ulcers.

Saffron

Saffron threads should be red and orange tips.  Threads lacking orange tips may be dyed, so avoid them.  The quality of powdered saffron is measured by its Minimum Coloring Strength.  The higher the Minimum Coloring Strength, the less saffron you need to use.  A typical level is 180 and a level of 220 or higher is quite good.  Some cooks prefer the threads to the powder since it’s hard to detect if the powder has been adulterated.  Powdered saffron though is easier to use, since it can be added directly to a dish, while the threads need to be steeped in hot water first.

It requires over two hundred thousand stigmas from crocus sativus flowers to make a pound of saffron.  That’s why saffron is the world’s most expensive spice.  Fortunately, it only takes a few threads to add saffron’s distinct yellow color and earthy aroma to a family meal. 

Substitutes: turmeric (for color, not flavor; use four times as much), sallflower (use 8 times as much; less expensive and imparts similar color, but its taste is decidedly inferior), marigold blossoms (for color, not flavor, use twice as much) or red and yellow food coloring.

Spice Mixtures

Garam Masala (meaning hot spices)

In North India where winters are bitterly cold, a blend of spices called garam masala is preferred to chillies.  Some of the most expensive spices go into its making; every household in India has their own recipe for it.  Depending on individual taste, the proportion of the various ingredients can be adjusted.  Heat a pan and dry roast the spices.  Stir constantly.  Add turmeric and asafetida, mix well and take off the heat.  Transfer to a dry bowl.  Heat oil in the same pan and fry  three lentils.  Add to the roasted spices after they turn dark.  Grind the mixture after it cools. 

Sambhar Powder

It’s the special spice blend of South India.  It acts as a flavoring as well as a thickening agent.  This mix is so-called because it is used to flavor a dal [lentils] of the same name [Sambhar], popular in this region.  It is a preparation of lentils and vegetables, spiked with different spices and laced with coriander.

Tandoori Masala

In Punjab, huge earthen or clay ovens (called tandoors), half buried in the ground are made red-hot with a coal fire at the bottom.  Marinated fish, meat, chicken, and cottage cheese is threaded onto skewers and cooked in it.  The food gets flavored by a special tandoori mixture of spices and charcoal.  Tandoori masala has a distinctive aroma.  Very fragrant and spicy, it tastes hot, sour and salty with a predominant flavor of cumin and coriander.

 Panch Phoron

The most popular spice blend in Bengal and Eastern India is the panch phoron – Bengal’s equivalent of the Chinese 5-spice powder.  It is added to hot oil before adding vegetables lentils or pulses.  As it begins to splutter, the rest of the ingredients are added.  The unique aroma of Bengali cuisine is largely due to it. 

List of herbs and & their supposed  properties (This is not validated by the US FDA or by science necessarily, but is based on folk-wisdom.

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Last updated: June 18th, 2021