Spices & Seasonings

TRS Methi Fenugreek Seeds are small, hard, amber-coloured seeds with a distinct bitterness and a maple-like aroma. A few seeds are all a dish needs — they are a background note, not a main spice.

Best for

• Sambar powder and South Indian tempering
• Mango and lime pickles
• Fish curries, and sprouting

How to cook it

Add them to hot oil at the very start of a tempering, but only for a second or two — they burn quickly and the bitterness becomes unpleasant once they darken past golden. Use a quarter teaspoon for a family dish. For idli and dosa batter, soak a teaspoon alongside the rice; it helps the batter ferment and softens the texture.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Black Pepper Powder is ground black peppercorn — sharp, woody and pungent, with a heat quite unlike chilli. It is the everyday pepper for seasoning, ready ground so you are not reaching for the mill mid-recipe.

Best for

• Pepper chicken, pepper rasam and Chettinad dishes
• Soups, omelettes and everyday seasoning
• Masala chai, garam masala blends and marinades

Using it

Pepper loses its aroma with long cooking, so add it in the last few minutes rather than at the start. In a tempering, let it hit the oil only briefly. For rasam and pepper chicken, a heavier hand is the point — it is the pepper, not the chilli, doing the work.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Cumin Powder (Jeera) is ground cumin seed, warm and slightly bitter with the smoky note that runs through most Indian cooking. Ground cumin disperses through a gravy in a way whole seeds never do, so it works where you want the flavour everywhere rather than in bursts.

Best for

• Curry and gravy bases, alongside coriander powder
• Raita, chaat and jeera aloo
• Marinades, kebab mixes and spice rubs

Using it

Add it once the onions have softened and cook for 30 to 60 seconds before any liquid goes in — that short fry takes off the raw, dusty edge. A common ratio in north Indian gravies is two parts coriander powder to one part cumin. For raita or chaat, a dry-roasted pinch stirred in at the end is better than cooked.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Chilli Powder Kashmir is ground Kashmiri chilli, prized for the deep red colour it gives a dish rather than for heat. It is noticeably milder than ordinary chilli powder, so you can use a generous spoonful without the gravy becoming fierce.

Best for

• Rogan josh, butter chicken and tandoori marinades
• Rajma, chole and other tomato-based gravies
• Tempering, where colour matters as much as flavour

Using it

Bloom it in warm oil or ghee for a few seconds before the onions or tomatoes go in — that is what releases the colour. Keep the heat moderate; even a mild chilli powder turns bitter if it burns. If a recipe calls for both, use this for the body of the colour and a small pinch of hot chilli powder for the heat.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Butter Chicken Masala is a mild blend for the creamy tomato gravy of murgh makhani, built for richness rather than heat. Dried fenugreek leaf and warm spices give it the slightly bitter, buttery edge that distinguishes butter chicken from an ordinary tomato curry.

Best for

• Butter chicken with grilled or pan-fried chicken
• Paneer butter masala and makhani gravies
• Marinating chicken in yoghurt before roasting

Using it

Split it between the marinade and the gravy. Use about a teaspoon in yoghurt with ginger and garlic for half a kilo of chicken, then another two teaspoons in the tomato base once it has cooked down and been blended smooth. Add butter and cream at the end on a low flame, and keep it below a boil so the sauce stays glossy.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Chicken Masala is a straightforward everyday blend for chicken cooked in an onion and tomato gravy. It is balanced rather than specialised, with enough chilli to register and coriander and warm spices filling out the body.

Best for

• Home-style chicken curry with onion and tomato
• Chicken cooked with yoghurt or coconut milk
• Chicken keema and dry chicken fry

Using it

Brown the onion well, add ginger and garlic, then the masala, and fry it in the oil for thirty to forty seconds before the chicken goes in. Around two and a half teaspoons suits half a kilo of chicken. Let the chicken take colour in the masala before you add water, then simmer covered for fifteen to twenty minutes and reduce uncovered at the end.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Dal Makhani Masala is the blend for the slow-cooked Punjabi dal of whole black urad and kidney beans finished with butter and cream. It is warm and mild rather than hot, so it supports the dairy richness instead of cutting through it.

Best for

• Dal makhani with whole urad and rajma
• Kali dal and other slow-simmered lentil dishes
• Buttery tomato-based gravies

Using it

Soak the whole urad and rajma overnight, then pressure cook until completely soft, six to eight whistles. Add the masala to the fried onion, ginger, garlic and tomato base and cook it in the ghee before the dal goes in. Two teaspoons suits a pot for four. Then simmer it low and long, stirring often, and add butter and cream at the end.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Fish Curry Masala is a tangy, chilli-led blend for fish cooked in gravy, where the spicing has to season the sauce in a short cooking time. Souring spices and pepper sit forward, which suits the tamarind and coconut styles fish curry usually takes.

Best for

• Fish curry with tamarind or kokum
• Prawn and crab curries
• Marinating fish before pan-frying

Using it

Build the gravy first. Fry onion, ginger and garlic, add the masala and let it cook in the oil for a minute, then add tamarind extract, coconut milk or tomato and simmer. Two teaspoons suits half a kilo of fish. Slide the fish in only at the end and give it six to eight minutes on a low flame, without stirring, so the pieces hold together.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Garam Masala is a finishing blend of warm aromatic spices, not a chilli powder and not a dish-specific masala. Cardamom, cinnamon, clove, black pepper and cumin give it fragrance and depth, and it adds almost no heat of its own.

Best for

• Finishing dals, chana and rajma
• Chicken and mutton curries of any style
• Vegetable gravies, keema and pulao

Using it

Add it in the last few minutes of cooking, or stir it in off the heat, because long boiling flattens the aroma it exists to provide. Half to one teaspoon is enough for a dish serving four. If you prefer a deeper flavour, bloom a small pinch in hot ghee and pour it over the finished dish. Use it alongside, not instead of, the main spicing.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Jal Jeera Masala is a cold-drink blend rather than a cooking masala, built on roasted cumin, black salt and mint. It is sour and savoury, with a cooling finish and almost no cooking required.

Best for

• Chilled jaljeera served before a meal
• Spiced lemon water and shikanji
• Sprinkling over cut fruit, salad or curd

Using it

Stir about one and a half tablespoons into a litre of cold water with lemon juice and a little tamarind or jaggery, then let it stand for fifteen minutes before straining. Serve it very cold with chopped mint. Because it already carries salt, taste before adding any, and add sourness with lemon rather than more powder.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Karahi Chicken Masala is the blend for chicken cooked quickly in a karahi with tomato, ginger and green chilli. It is pepper-forward and lightly tangy, meant for a thick clinging masala rather than a thin, slow-simmered gravy.

Best for

• Chicken karahi and kadai chicken
• Quick tomato-based chicken dishes
• Dry-fried chicken with capsicum and onion

Using it

Fry the chicken in hot oil until it colours, add chopped tomato and cook it down, then stir in two to three teaspoons for half a kilo of chicken. Keep the flame high and stir until the oil separates and the masala coats the pieces. Add julienned ginger and green chilli at the end, and keep water out of it so the gravy stays thick.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Karahi Gosht Masala is built for meat cooked fast in a karahi with tomato, ginger and green chilli, where the gravy stays thick and clinging rather than thin. Coarse black pepper and coriander carry it, so the finish is sharp rather than sweet.

Best for

• Karahi gosht with mutton or lamb
• Beef karahi and quick-fried meat dishes
• Kadai paneer if you want a meatier spicing

Using it

Sear the meat in hot oil, add plenty of chopped tomato and let it collapse, then stir in about three teaspoons for half a kilo of meat. Cook on a high flame, stirring, until the oil separates and the gravy grips the pieces. Finish with julienned ginger and slit green chillies off the heat, and do not add water unless the pan is genuinely dry.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Pani Puri Masala is the sour, salty, mint-and-cumin blend used to make the spiced water for pani puri. It is built around tang rather than heat, with roasted cumin and black salt doing most of the work.

Best for

• Pani for pani puri and golgappa
• Jaljeera-style chilled drinks
• Sprinkling over chaat, fruit or boiled potato

Using it

Stir about two tablespoons into a litre of cold water with tamarind pulp and a little jaggery, then leave it for twenty to thirty minutes so the flavour comes together. Strain it, add chopped mint and coriander and chill it thoroughly before serving. Adjust tamarind and salt to taste rather than adding more masala, which can turn the water muddy.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Paratha Masala is a seasoning blend made to go inside or on top of flatbreads rather than into a gravy. It is savoury and lightly tangy, with the carom-and-chilli character that suits dough and potato stuffing.

Best for

• Aloo, gobi and mooli stuffed parathas
• Masala parathas seasoned in the dough itself
• Seasoning grated vegetables before they are wrapped

Using it

For a stuffing, mix about one teaspoon into the mashed potato or grated vegetable for every four parathas, along with salt and chopped coriander. For plain masala parathas, knead half a teaspoon per cup of atta straight into the dough. You can also dust a little over the paratha as it cooks and press it in with ghee.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Pulao Masala is a gentle, fragrant blend for rice rather than a curry masala. It sits on warm whole spices of the cinnamon, clove, bay and cardamom family, so it perfumes the pot without adding real heat.

Best for

• Vegetable pulao with peas, carrot and beans
• Jeera or matar pulao served alongside a curry
• Light chicken or mutton pulao

Using it

Warm it in ghee or oil with sliced onion for about a minute before the rinsed rice goes in, so the aromatics open up. Use roughly one and a half teaspoons for two cups of raw rice feeding four. Add water at the usual ratio for your rice, season with salt, and leave the pot alone once it comes to a simmer. It is meant to be subtle, so resist doubling the quantity.

Pack and storage

50g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Shahi Paneer Masala is a mild, aromatic blend built for a rich cashew, tomato and cream gravy rather than a fiery curry. Warm spices such as cardamom dominate, and there is very little chilli heat.

Best for

• Shahi paneer in a creamy tomato gravy
• Malai kofta and other mild North Indian gravies
• Vegetable korma-style dishes

Using it

Bloom it briefly in ghee or oil with the onion and tomato base before any liquid goes in, which brings the cardamom forward. Around two teaspoons suits 250g of paneer serving four. Add the cream or cashew paste once the masala has cooked through, then slide the paneer in at the very end and warm it through rather than boil it, so it stays soft.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

MDH Sindhi Biryani Masala is the blend for Sindhi-style biryani, which runs hotter and noticeably more sour than the Hyderabadi version. Chilli and dried souring spices lead, with warm whole-spice aromatics sitting behind them.

Best for

• Sindhi mutton or chicken biryani with potato
• Tomato and yoghurt based meat curries
• Spiced rice layered with fried onion

Using it

Add it at the masala stage, not at the end. Fry onions until deep brown, add ginger, garlic and tomato, then stir in three to four teaspoons for half a kilo of meat and cook until the oil separates. Fold in yoghurt off the heat so it does not split, then layer with par-boiled rice and steam on a low flame. Taste before you add salt, as the blend is already well seasoned.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Priya Chicken 65 Masala is the blend for the South Indian fried chicken of the same name: hot, sharply red and tangy, with chilli well forward. It is a marinade mix rather than a curry powder, so it is used before the frying, not after.

Best for

• Bite-sized boneless chicken fry
• Paneer 65 and gobi 65
• Prawn 65

Using it

Cut boneless chicken into bite-sized pieces and marinate with two to three teaspoons of the masala, thick curd, a spoon of cornflour, salt and a squeeze of lemon for at least an hour. Fry in hot oil in small batches so the temperature does not drop, until the pieces are deep red and cooked through. Finish by tossing them in a hot pan with curry leaves and slit green chillies for under a minute, and serve straight away while the coating is still crisp.

Pack and storage

50g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Green Cardamom (Elachi) are whole pale-green pods holding small sticky black seeds. The pod is mostly a wrapper; the aroma — sweet, floral and slightly camphorous — lives in the seeds inside.

Best for

• Masala chai and kheer
• Biryani, pulao and korma
• Gulab jamun, halwa and garam masala

How to cook it

For savoury dishes, bruise the pod with the flat of a knife and fry it whole in ghee at the start. For sweets and chai, split the pods, take out the seeds and crush them to a powder — the flavour is far stronger that way, and you avoid papery husks in the finished dish. Two or three pods will scent a pot of rice or a litre of milk.

Pack and storage

50 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Almond Flakes are blanched almonds sliced into thin flat pieces, ready to use with no skinning or chopping. They toast quickly and evenly, and give a crisp, nutty layer on a dish without the weight of whole nuts. This is the large 750 g catering pack.

Best for

• Garnishing biryani, pulao and korma
• Kheer, halwa, barfi and festive sweets
• Baking, granola and breakfast toppings

Using it

Toast in a dry pan over medium heat, or in a little ghee, for two to three minutes — keep them moving and take them off while they are still pale gold, as they darken after leaving the heat. For sweets, fry in ghee with raisins and scatter over at the end so they stay crisp. Keep the bulk of the pack sealed; nuts pick up other smells readily.

Pack and storage

750 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Cinnamon (Dalchini) Powder is cinnamon bark ground to a fine powder — warm, sweet and woody, and ready to measure by the spoon rather than snapped off a quill. Ground cinnamon spreads evenly through a batter or a gravy in a way whole bark cannot.

Best for

• Garam masala and homemade spice blends
• Cakes, porridge and baking
• Masala chai, and rich meat curries

Using it

A quarter to half a teaspoon is enough for most dishes — cinnamon dominates quickly and turns soapy if overdone. In a curry, add it with the other ground spices and fry for only a few seconds before the liquid goes in. Ground cinnamon loses its aroma faster than whole bark, so keep the jar closed and buy in the size you will get through.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Madras Curry Powder — Hot is the fuller-strength blend in the Madras range, built on coriander, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek and a heavier hand of chilli. It carries real heat, not just colour.

This is the Hot grade. If you would rather have the aroma without the burn, the Mild version of the same blend is the one to reach for.

Best for

• Madras curries with lamb, chicken or fish
• Dry-fried potato and vegetable dishes
• Marinades, and seasoning for rice and lentils

Using it

Fry the powder in a little oil for 30 to 60 seconds before adding onions or tomatoes. That short bloom takes away the raw edge and brings the aroma out properly.

Pack and storage

100 g. Keep sealed, away from heat and light.

TRS Garam Masala is the ground blend of warm spices — the finishing masala rather than a base one. Where turmeric and chilli go in at the start of a dish, garam masala is what you stir in near the end to lift the aroma.

Best for

• Finishing curries, dals and vegetable dishes
• Kebab mixes, koftas and marinades
• Chole, rajma and rich meat gravies

Using it

Add half a teaspoon in the last two or three minutes of cooking, or sprinkle it over just before serving — long boiling flattens the aroma and can leave a bitter edge. Use it alongside coriander and cumin powder, not instead of them; it is there for perfume, not for body. Keep the jar tightly shut, as ground blends fade quickly.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Nutmeg (Jaifal) is the whole dried seed — hard, oval and brown, to be grated as you need it. Whole nutmeg keeps its warm, sweet, slightly resinous aroma for years, where the pre-ground kind goes flat within months.

Best for

• Garam masala and biryani masala blends
• Kheer, halwa and milk sweets
• Kebab and kofta mixes, and béchamel

Using it

Grate it on the finest side of a grater, straight over the dish, and stop early — a quarter of a nutmeg is more than enough for a family-sized pot, and too much turns a dish medicinal. Add it at the end for sweets and milk dishes; in a masala blend, break a piece off and grind it with the other whole spices.

Pack and storage

100 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.