Masala
Spice Knowledge
Indian food is not 'spicy'. Indian food is spiced. The difference is the entire craft.
Tadka, the moment everything decides
A tadka, or tempering, is the first or last act of a dish. Hot ghee or oil, then mustard seeds (they pop), then cumin (it darkens), then hing, curry leaves, dried chilli. Three to twenty seconds. Get it wrong and the dish is bitter. Get it right and the entire kitchen smells like a Sunday.
Bhuna, the slow Maillard
Bhuna is the long slow frying of onion, ginger, garlic and tomato until the oil separates and the masala turns the colour of mahogany. This is where a curry earns its depth. Skip it and your gravy will taste like a sauce. A great Awadhi cook will bhuna for forty minutes for a single biryani.
Dry-roasting and grinding
Garam masala bought from a packet is convenience. Garam masala dry-roasted at home (cinnamon, clove, cardamom, black pepper, bay) and ground that morning is a different ingredient entirely. The volatile oils last about 48 hours at full strength. Indian grandmothers grind weekly for this exact reason.
The geography of spice
Black pepper from Kerala. Cardamom from the Idukki hills. Saffron from Pampore in Kashmir. Mathania red chilli from Rajasthan. Guntur chilli from Andhra. Naga chilli from the North East. Each one is a Geographical Indication or close to it. The Indian spice cabinet is, in trade terms, an atlas.
“Indian food is not 'spicy'. Indian food is spiced.”