A Guide For Using Spices In Indian Cooking

A Guide for Using Spices in Indian Cooking

If you love a good Indian meal and are still exploring your culinary skills, heres  a quick guide on incorporating different types of spices into your dishes without losing their essence or worse,overdoing it all.

Adding spices at the right time
Broadly, spices can be categorized as Whole Spices ,Ground Spices. While it is ideal to always put the whole spices first so that they can release their flavours and aroma, you can also add them as part of the tempering or tadka over your dishes. Commonly used spices in tempering are cumin, mustard, kalaunji and ajwain.

Ground spices are added mostly after the base of the curry is made or near the end of the cooking process, to avoid the burning of such spices which will lead to loss in the aroma and flavor. You can also sprinkle some of them like Red Chilli and Garam Masala.

Another method of using Ground Spices is during marination of the proteins. An easy choice is picking a readymade spice blend. At Chukde Spices we follow traditional recipes to create perfect spices to go with your dishes like the Tandoori B.B.Q. Masala, Meat Masala, and Chicken Masala.

Complementing the Right Dishes
It is also important how to pair the spices with the right kind of dishes to not kill the flavour of the original vegetable or protein that you are using.

Meat-based Dishes - Spices with strong aromatic profiles like Cinnamon, Clove, and Mace do a lot for poultry and lamb by layering the flavours. You can always use a Spice Blend that goes with your dish as mentioned earlier.
Veg Dishes - Its important for the flavour of each vegetable to stand out in a dish and thus slightly milder spices like Cumin, Coriander, and Fennel are added to them that do not overpower the vegetables but enhance the dishes.

Pulses and Beans - Various dals and beans like Chickpeas and Rajma are rich in protein and carbs, and cause gas. While as a step to avoid, we rinse and drain off the water as a practice,what additionally helps is incorporating spices like Ajwain, Hing, Cumin, and Coriander to them which will not only elevate the flavours, but eliminate digestive problems too.

Adding the Right Amount of Heat
Now the spice that goes with every savoury dish is Chilli. This, however, has to do more with your spice tolerance and the flavour you seek. From Kashmiri Red Chillis that are milder but give a beautiful colour to the dish, to the commonly used Sabut Lal Mirch that adds heat to your dish, you can take your pick.

While we give you a basic guide, cooking is all about enjoying the process, experimenting, and putting your love in it. So don't shy from trying different combinations of spices, and just have fun!