The Spice Guide
What each spice is, what it tastes like, and which dishes it shows up in.
- Turmeric — The spice that gives most Indian and Nepali curries their yellow colour, used more for color, mild b…
- Cumin — The seed most responsible for the smell of a South Asian kitchen: dropped into hot oil or ghee at th…
- Coriander Seed — The dried seed of the same plant whose fresh leaves are called coriander or cilantro, but tasting no…
- Cardamom — A small, intensely fragrant pod that scents both sweet and savory cooking — the spice most responsib…
- Cinnamon — A warm, sweet whole spice bloomed in hot fat at the start of a biryani or curry, or boiled directly …
- Cloves — A small, nail-shaped dried flower bud with an intensity out of proportion to its size — a handful is…
- Bay Leaf — A large, dried aromatic leaf dropped whole into biryani and slow-cooked curries as they start, then …
- Chilli — The source of heat in South Asian cooking, used fresh, dried whole or ground, and — despite how cent…
- Garam Masala — Not a single spice but a roasted, ground blend of warm spices, stirred in near the end of cooking ra…
- Curry Masala — The bottled, standardized 'curry powder' familiar outside South Asia is largely a British colonial-e…
- Ginger-Garlic — Not a single botanical spice but a fresh paste of roughly equal parts ginger and garlic, blended tog…
- Fenugreek — A plant used two distinct ways in the same kitchen: its small, hard seeds add a bitter edge to tempe…