When I travelled India, my mouth watered constantly with all the wonderful smells I was surrounded by. Indian cooking involves the intricate blending of spices such as turmeric, saffron and cardamom, with fresh ingredients, producing some of the most incredible flavours to ever hit your taste buds. While I was there, I made sure to procure some of the basic ingredients and some beginner recipes I would need to start cooking Indian more often at home. Here are some tips and essentials you should stock up on if you want to master the art of delicious Indian cuisine.
A typical South Indian Thali
Key Spices
“Masala” is the Hindi word for “spices”. Spices are fundamental to Indian cuisine, giving the food its unique flavors and aromas. It is important you do a little inventory management with your spices and keep them stored somewhere away from light or air as the spices will degrade quite rapidly. Store whole spices in tightly lidded jars. To ensure maximum freshness, buy whole spices rather than powders, and grind only what you need.
Essential spices you’ll need include:
- Red chilies
- Turmeric
- Cumin seeds
- Coriander seeds
- Dried Bay Leaf
- Green and black cardamom
- Cloves
- Cinnamon sticks
- Nutmeg
- Saffron
- Fennel
- Mustard seeds
When using spices for cooking, you should toast the spices before grinding them. This intensifies the flavours. You can dry-fry the spices simply by heating a heavy pan over moderate heat so as not to burn them then shake them until the wonderful aromas are released. That’s how you know they are ready.
Key Ingredients
In order to be able to whip up one of your favourite Indian dishes, you need the right ingredients.
Key ingredients include:
- Basmati rice
- Coriander leaves
- Plain yoghurt
- Potato
- Coconut
- Fresh ginger
- Gram flour (chickpea flour)
- Ghee (Indian clarified butter)
- Onions
- Lentils
- Chickpeas
- Potato
- Beans
- Chicken
- Lamb
Cooking Tips:
There is no right way to cook Indian food however there are simple things you can do to get the results you want. Pastes are essential to the cooking process when making sauces as they add thickness. You can use cashew nuts, browned onions or even coconut milk to thicken sauces. As mentioned earlier, it’s key to toast your spices to maximize flavor before grinding them.
Now that you have your basics, it’s up to you to get cooking! There are hundreds of recipes to be found on the web. I recommend this site for some authentic Indian recipes.
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Wildlife Holidays 07.26.10 at 4:07 am
I fully agree with your post, the spices and texture of Indian food is exceptional, i recently spent a year in India and fell in love with the food, however it is so difficult to find authentic Indian food now i back at home