Indian SpicesThere are a wealth Glossaryof different spices available to feature in Indian cooking and these are the most common... ASAFOETIDA (Ferula asafoetida) is the resinous gum of a plant grown in Afghanistan and Iran. Before it is cooked it has a very pungent smell and is known as ‘devil’s dung’. Luckily, in cooking it loses this smell and enhances flavours. Often used in Indian cookery as a substitute for garlic when garlic is not allowed for religious reasons. Asafoetida acts as an anti-flatulent, so is added to bean and lentil dishes. It is one of the main ingredients in gripe water. Also known as hing. CARDAMOM (Elettaria cardamomum) always spelt with an m Spice, not an n, is a member of the ginger family, indigenous to Sri Lanka and southern India. The plant looks rather like a cross between a bamboo and a lily and grows under the spice, baby! canopy of tropical forests. The pods are harvested by hand once a year, sorted and Demuths reveal which spices you then dried over wood fires. After saffron and vanilla it is the next most expensive spice need to cook Indian street food in the world. The pods are a pale green and each contains about 20 small black seeds. Buy green ones, as pale ones are either stale or have been bleached. The easiest way to cook ndia is famous for its street food fritters) kachori (stuff ed puri) and samosas. with cardamom is to gently bruise the pod and just pop them in whole. To remove the and it’s a treat for vegans to wander The most popular non-deep-fried snack seeds, dry roast the pods first and then they through an Indian street at dusk, at the cookery school is a dosa, a southern I split open easier. The seeds are used in spice when the food stalls are churning out hot Indian rice and lentil pancake, often fi lled mixes. Ground cardamom is used in puddings snacks to hungry offi ce workers on their with spicy potatoes and called a masala and it’s easier to buy ready ground in small way home. Much of the street food is vegan, dosa. In India, dosas are skilfully made quantities. Black or brown cardamom is a particularly in the south and west where out on the street on large fl at hot plates. false cardamom and not from the same family. the majority of Hindus and Jains live. The Indians have the knack of making The pods are far bigger with ridged sides. Vegans do need to avoid the milk products them thin, so crisp and huge, then deftly They have a stronger more antiseptic flavour hotography © Rob Wicks from EatPictures Wicks from © Rob hotography though, such as butter ghee, chai, lassis, wrapping them around spiced potatoes. and are only used in savoury dishes. P yoghurt and paneer – most Indian sweets There is no need to go all the way to contain dairy. India for street food now, as it’s popular at Tourists are often warned off street food street markets and festivals, and usually in India, but if you choose carefully it can there is a very good Indian stall. The key to be safer than eating a buff et at a 5-star making tasty Indian street food at home is hotel. Choose the stalls with a long line to make your own fresh spice mixes. and where you can watch the food being cooked, deep-fried food is always a safe bet Demuths Cookery School runs regular courses as are dosas, which are cooked in front of in Indian cooking. Visit you. Avoid the salads and anything raw. www.demuths.co.uk for a newsletter, recipes and Our favourite deep-fried snacks are offers and demuths.co.uk/cookery-courses/ pakoras, onion bhajis, batata vada (potato categories/indian for Indian cooking course info. 76 VEGAN FOOD & LIVING AUGUST VFL27.Spices.FINAL.indd 76 05/07/2018 12:24 CHILLIES (Capsicum frutescens) CUMIN (Cuminum cyminum) is one of and turns dull orange in colour. Mace has a Generally the smaller the size the more the most important spice seeds, along with slightly bitter aromatic flavour, subtler than powerful the heat kick is. Red chillies are not coriander. It looks similar to caraway seeds nutmeg. Mace is sold as blades. necessarily hotter than green, as red chillies but tastes totally different. Dry roasting are ripe and tend to be sweeter. The hottest brings out the flavour in the cumin. They burn MUSTARD SEEDS (Brassica juncea) part of the chilli is the white membrane very easily, so go easy on the heat. If you do are the hot and bitter brown seeds of this inside that holds the seeds called capsaicin. burn them, best to discard them, as they will annual mustard plant native to India. Used The seeds are the next hottest, so for a ruin the spice mix. whole and fried in oil until it pops and then milder flavour scrape out the membrane and added along with the oil to curries and dhals the seeds. CURRY LEAVES (Murraya koenigii) at the end of cooking. are the leaves from a native Indian tree, they give off a spicy aroma when rubbed and are much more pungent when fresh. They add aroma, often added into the hot tempering oil, but are not eaten. Available from Asian stores. Buy fresh and then freeze them, because dried curry leaves will have lost most of their piquancy. FENUGREEK (Trigonella foenum- graecum) seeds are small, oblong and CINNAMON (Cinnamomum mustard brown. In India and Sri Lanka, zeylanicum) is a native of Sri Lanka. fenugreek seed is one of the spices in curry NUTMEG (Myristica fragrans) Cinnamon quills are pale and are made of powder and spice mixes, but must be used is the kernel of the nutmeg fruit. Native to four or five very fine, tan coloured layers of conservatively as it has a bitter flavour. the Spice Islands (Moluccas), whole nutmeg parchment-like bark, which is fermented for Fenugreek has many medicinal uses, as an keeps its flavour much better than powdered, 24 hours, and the corky outer layer removed. expectorant, calming the stomach, lowering so it’s best to keep a whole nutmeg and grate The fine bark curls as it dries, and smaller cholesterol levels and blood sugar in a little when you need it. Nutmeg contains quills are inside the wider quills to make up diabetics. The young plants, known as methi in the hallucinogen myristicin. the layers. The quills are then cut into 8cm India, are a popular green leaf vegetable. (3in) lengths and look rather like small cigarillos. Cinnamon is not to be confused PEPPER (Piper nigrum) The berries with cassia, which is native to China and is a from the perennial parasitic vine grow in close relative, but not nearly as fragrant. You trailing clusters, start off green and turn can tell them apart as cassia is darker red in red when ripe. Unripe peppercorns/green colour, rougher in texture and far cheaper peppercorns are harvested for eating fresh, than cinnamon. drying or preserved in brine or dried in the sun to become black peppercorns. White peppercorns are ripe peppercorns that have CLOVES (Syzygium armaticum) The had the red outer flesh removed by soaking name clove comes from the French ‘clou’ and then the white inner peppercorn is meaning nail, to describe the look of the dried in the sun. clove. Cloves are the unopened flower bud of a tree of the myrtle family, indigenous to GINGER (Zingiber officinale) the Moluccas in eastern Indonesia. When PINK PEPPERCORNS are not related is native to southern Asia and it is the fresh they are a deep pink colour, and are and are the dried berries from the schinus rhizome (underground stem) that we eat. picked before the flower opens. The buds molle, a feathery leaved mastic tree. They have Ginger root is dried and made into powdered are then dried out in the sun for a few days a crunchy texture and aromatic flavour. ginger. Ginger is in the same botanical family until they turn dark brown. Cloves are very as turmeric and galangal. pungent, so a few go a long way. Oil of cloves is used to relieve toothache. KALONGI SEEDS (Nigella sativa) are also known as black onion seeds and have a CORIANDER (Coriandrum sativum) delicate peppery flavour. seed is a major component in spice mixes from India to the Far East and is used much more universally than coriander leaves. The MACE (Myristica fragrans) is the lacy seeds are small, round and fawn in colour. To scarlet membrane that is wrapped around the release their flavour they need to be lightly kernel (nutmeg) and enclosed in the nutmeg dry-fried before crushing to a powder. Freshly fruit, which resembles a yellow apricot. made coriander powder is far more fragrant The nutmeg fruit is split open, the nutmeg than shop bought. removed and the mace is removed and dried VEGAN FOOD & LIVING AUGUST 77 VFL27.Spices.FINAL.indd 77 05/07/2018 12:54 Indian spices SAFFRON (Crocus sativus) threads are TURMERIC (Curcuma longa) a the red/orange three-branched styles of the Of the ginger family, it has an aromatic, crocus, grown from the Mediterranean to earthy, slightly medicinal flavour and is best the mountains of Kashmir. Saffron has to be known for its brilliant orange colour. Food picked by hand, making it the most expensive coloured yellow is sacred for Hindus, so spice in the world. It colours food a brilliant turmeric is a very important spice in India.