Spices form the backbone of Indian cuisine. Without them, life would be quite dull or tasteless for many of us. Once you get to know them, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them. Here are some ideas on what to do with spices when you purchase them or if you’re lucky enough to receive them.

A spice is an aromatic, pungent or strongly flavoured vegetable substance – the bark, seeds, buds, leaves, roots or berries which is used as a natural food additive for the purpose of flavouring.

Spices play an important part in most cuisines but are prominent in Indian cooking.

Spices used in Indian cooking.

Asafoetida, green and black cardamom pods, caraway seeds, chilli, cinnamon, cassia bark, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, curry powder, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds or leaves, garam masala (a mixture of hot spices), mace, mustard seeds, onion or nigella seeds, nutmeg, paprika, peppercorns, poppy seeds, saffron, sambar powder and turmeric.

Which ones?

There are many individual spices in Indian cooking and then there are the spice blends or mixtures which are a combination of spices dry roasted and ground.

Many Asian households would stock around 30 individual spices in the kitchen but it would be unlikely that they would use them all in one dish or even one meal.

My essential five spices that I always have at home are:

Cumin

Coriander

Garam Masala

Chilli powder

Turmeric

With these five spices, you can make most savoury Indian dishes. It’s good to experiment with these first and then broaden your repertoire to include others as you begin to get familiar with their flavours.

Who’s the Daddy?

Well the daddy or the mother of all spices is saffron because it is the most expensive spice in the world.  It’s the dried red stigma of Crocus Sativus, an autumn-flowering plant. More than 75,000 crocus blossoms are needed to produce a pound of saffron. But fortunately, a little goes a long way. It adds a rich golden colour to rice dishes. Saffron is sold as the whole stigmas, wiry strands or threads in a deep vibrant orange or red colour. It should have a strong, penetrating, clinging aroma, and an aromatic, warm rich flavour.

Saffron supplies the characteristic flavour and colour in Indian dessert sauces and milk puddings. Steep the stigmas in water or warm milk for a few minutes before using them to extract as much as possible of their flavour. Don’t use turmeric as a substitute for saffron – the colour might be similar but the flavour is entirely different.

Whole or ground

Generally whole spices last longer, but often need to be dry roasted and then ground before use. If you store whole spices away from heat, sunlight and moisture they will last for a year. Ground spices if stored away from sunlight and heat in an airtight container will last for about six months. After that, they begin to lose their flavour and potency so there would be no point in cooking with them because they wouldn’t taste like anything much. Always use a dry spoon when dipping into ground spices.

If you feel that you would like to try out some whole spices, go for cumin and coriander seeds, cloves and green cardamoms to start off with. They add flavour to many curries including rice dishes such as pulaos and biryanis.

Spice blends

The blending of spices is fundamental to Indian cookery. There are infinite different combinations, and everyone imparts its own distinctive flavours. Garam masala is a mixture of hot spices such as cloves, cinnamon - a combination of spices which is very similar to mulled wine. Blends of garam masala vary enormously, according to local or regional tastes. It is a mixture that is predominantly used in northern Indian cooking. A popular spice blend in eastern India, is known as panch phoran and contains cumin, nigella, fennel seeds, brown or black mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds. In southern India sambar powder is made with grinding lentils and various other spices including fiery red chillies. This powder provides a smooth velvet like thickening to a finished sauce and it is regularly prepared fresh to make a soupy lentil and vegetable dish called Sambar.

And then there’s curry powder. Commercial curry powders that would make curries easier to prepare for the novices amongst. There is nothing wrong with commercially bought curry powder which is convenient but often you are not aware of what the mixture contains and more often than not, varying dishes will begin to taste quite similar if you just stick with one brand.

Each Indian household produces its own unique blend of spices to cook with.  Once you have familiarized yourself with a few basic recipes, there’ll be no end to the combinations of spices you’ll come up with.

Fresh and dry

Fresh spices are ingredients such as coriander leaves, green chillies, garlic, root ginger, curry leaves and fenugreek leaves. Chilli powder can be substituted for green chillies and fresh fenugreek or curry leaves can be replaced with dried leaves which are second best.

Coriander seeds or ground coriander (the powder form) is not a substitute for fresh coriander leaves because the flavours are quite different. The same applies to ground ginger which has a much sweeter flavour than fresh root ginger.

Preparing them for cooking

Grinding, crushing or heating spices releases their flavour and aroma.

Dry Roasting

Before cooking you can toast ground spices to intensify their flavours in a dish. Heat a frying pan or a heavy skillet on a medium heat, then add the ground spices and swirl them around in the pan for 30 seconds to a minute making sure you do not burn them. If you do, then you will have to throw it away and start again. Once you begin to smell the aroma, take the pan off the heat and use as the recipe states. This method can also be used for cumin, coriander, cardamom and peppercorns. If you are dry roasting cardamoms, you can remove the black seeds from the pods and discard the outer husks (although they are also edible) and then roast them.

Grinding

In order to preserve their flavour, it’s advisable to grind spice when you need them rather than in advance. One way of grinding spices such as cumin seeds, coriander seeds and seeds from green cardamoms is with a good and sturdy pestle and mortar. You can dry roast them first, let them cool and then pound them. This traditional method is ideal for grinding small amounts.

A coffee grinder is an even quicker way of grinding tougher spices such as fenugreek seeds, cassia bark, cinnamon and nutmeg. Once again before grinding, dry roast them first. Take note though, that if you also use the electric grinder to grind coffee, the smell of the spices will linger in the container so it’s best to use a separate coffee mill, or grind uncooked rice grains in the mill afterwards, empty and wipe with a paper towel which should remove any traces of spice residue.

Handling spices

Chillies can cause irritation to the skin, mouth, stomach and intestines, so if you can, use rubber gloves when handling them or wash your hands thoroughly, immediately after handling them.

Storing spices

I know that many of you may have lovely spice racks which hang in broad daylight above the cooker, but remember, they will lose their flavour if exposed to sunlight, moisture and heat. So a cool, dark, dry place is the best. Check dry spices regularly and replace any that smell stale.

Fresh spices such as ginger and chillies will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. Curry leaves will last for a week and coriander leaves, just a few days. But if you need to store coriander for longer, place the stem ends in a jar of water and leave by the window sill.

To store ginger, wrap in a paper towel which will absorb the moisture which causes it to rot and then refrigerate.

If you get hold of curry leaves, you can place them in a sealed plastic bag and then store them in the fridge.

Many fresh spices do freeze well. This is quite handy for spices which are difficult to get hold of frequently.

To freeze fresh ginger root, peel it and then keep it in a covered plastic container in the freezer. When you need to use it, remove it from the freezer and grate what you need, and then return the leftover root to the freezer.

Spices which have been frozen may be a little limp when thawed but this should not affect the flavour. They last in the freezer for upto 6 months.