Food for Thought
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 nuskhe) are an integral part of Indian culture and society and helps keep the doctor away. Here are some of them:
Amchoor / amchur / umchoor / green mango powder / aamchur / anchor.
Made from sun-dried mangoes, it’s used as a souring agent or to tenderize meats.
Subsitutes: lemon juice, lime juice tamarind, chopped fresh mango (use more) or chopped fresh papaya (use more).
Asafoetida 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 flavour to Indian dishes. Use it sparingly. A little goes a long way. Substitutes: garlic powder or onion powder.
White Peppercorns
Pepper tastes just spicy hot. Its penetrating and tantalizing aroma is good enough to get your gastric juices flowing rustle up a healthy appetite. 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. Its also used in herbal tea. Green pepper is pickled.
Medicinal Values: Black pepper is a stimulant, disgestive and diuretic. It is said to reliee flatulence, colds, amnesia and even impotency.
Anaheim Chilli / Green Chilies
Chillies 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.
Chillies are high in vitamin A & C. They are also added to medicines to relieve sore throat. Capsicum preparations are used as counter-irritants for lumbago and rheumatic disorders. |
Chillies (Dried Red Chillies,
Red Chillies, Scotch Bonnets, Bird’s-eye Chillies)
They are deceptively beautiful. 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 flavour to Indian cuisine. They add the zing to Indian cooking.
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
Smaller and hotter than the yellow mustard seeds that most western cooks are familiar with.
Mustard is believed to posses the ability to calm the mind, create a peaceful personality and sharpen intelligence.
Brown cardamom pods
Cardamom figures prominently in various types of Indian cuisines. It is best to buy cardamom seeds still encased in their natural flavour-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, nutmeg or cinnamon.
Medicinal value: cardamom is aromatic, stimulating and refreshing. It rekindles digestive fir, refresh the mind and is a heat stimulant. It also relieves gas.
Fenugreek / fenugreek seeds /methi / halba
Pronunciation: FEN-you-greek
This adds an earthy flavour 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 / black onion seeds / kalonji / calonji / hasbasoda / ketza / black caraway.
Pronunciation: ni-JELL_uh
It has a subtle flavour that’s often used to enhance vegetable dishes. To bring out the flavour, it helps to toast the seeds briefly before using them.
Substitutes: cumin seeds, seasame seeds or oregano.
Medicinal value: relief from painful menstruation.
Pomegranate seeds/ anardana
Bits of Pomegranate pulp remain on the seeds as they dry, so they’re bit sticky and serve as a souring agent in Indian cusine. The seeds also come ground.
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Pepper
It is said Vasco da Gama risked everything and started on an endless sea voyage primarily in search of one thing pepper. And was he successful in his great quest! It’s called the ‘king of spices’ and accounts for the lion’s share of spice exports from India.
Cinnamon
With its warm, sweet flavour, cinnamon is one of the biggest workhorses on the spice shelf. Cooks often use it to flavour 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 flavour. They can be ground and used to flavour 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 / Comino / cummin / jeera
Pronunciation: KUH-Min or KYOO-min or KOO-min
Apart from Indian Cusine, cumine is a key ingredient in Southwestern chilli reciepes too. It's also widely used in Latin America and North Africa. 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/powdered turmeric/Indian saffron/eastern saffron.
Pronunciation: TURR-mer-ick,
Turmeric has a pleasant enough flavour but it’s prized more for the brilliant yellow colour 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.
Safron
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.
Substitutes: turmeric (for colour, not flavour; use 4 time as much), safflower ( use 8 times as much; less expensivej and imparts similar colour but in taste is decidedly inferior), marigold blossoms (for colour, not flavour; use twice as much or red and yellow food colouring.
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