Spices & Seasonings

Kotanyi Mühle Pfeffer Schwarz - Black Pepper Grinder

Kotanyi Black Pepper Mill delivers freshly ground black pepper with intense flavor and aroma. The built-in grinder ensures maximum freshness and taste in every turn.

Product Features:

• Premium black peppercorns
• Built-in ceramic grinder
• Freshly ground for maximum flavor
• Adjustable coarseness
• Austrian quality
• Convenient table-ready design

Usage:

Perfect for seasoning all dishes - meats, vegetables, pasta, salads, and soups. Fresh-ground pepper provides superior flavor to pre-ground varieties.

TRS Chilli Powder is ground dried red chilli and nothing else — no salt, no blended spices. It is there for heat rather than colour, which is what separates it from the Kashmiri grade.

Best for

• Curries, gravies and masala bases
• Marinades for meat and fish
• Pickles, chutneys and dry rubs

Using it

Add it to hot oil alongside the other ground spices for a few seconds only — it scorches fast and turns bitter if left. Start with less than you think you need; more can always be stirred in later. For a dish that looks red but eats gently, use Kashmiri chilli powder for most of the quantity and a pinch of this for the bite.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Cloves are whole dried flower buds, dark brown and nail-shaped, with a powerful sweet-hot aroma and a numbing edge on the tongue. They are one of the strongest spices in the cupboard, so three or four are usually enough for a whole pot.

Best for

• Biryani, pulao and korma
• Garam masala, both whole and ground
• Masala chai, and slow-cooked meat curries

How to cook it

Fry whole cloves in hot ghee at the start, alongside cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom, for a few seconds until they swell slightly. Take them out before serving if you can find them — a whole clove bitten into is unpleasantly strong. For chai, one or two crushed cloves simmered with the tea is plenty.

Pack and storage

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

Lucullus Black Pepper Ground 50g

Priya Garam Masala is a finishing blend built on warm spices such as cinnamon, clove, cardamom and black pepper, ground fine for stirring into a dish near the end of cooking. It is aromatic rather than hot, and a small quantity carries a long way.

Best for

• Chicken, mutton and paneer curries
• Dal, chana masala and rajma
• Pulao, biryani and vegetable stir-fries

Using it

Add half to one teaspoon in the last two or three minutes of cooking rather than at the start. Long simmering drives off the volatile aroma that makes the blend worth using, which is why it goes in late while a coriander or chilli powder goes in early. For a marinade, mix it with curd and salt and let the meat sit for an hour. If you want a little more depth, warm the measured spoonful in a dry pan for a few seconds before it goes into the pot.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Cumin Seeds (Jeera Whole) are whole cumin seeds in the larger 400 g pack — the size that makes sense if cumin starts nearly everything you cook. Warm, smoky and faintly bitter, they are the first thing into the pan in most Indian kitchens.

Best for

• Everyday tempering for dal, rice and vegetables
• Jeera rice, jeera aloo and kebab mixes
• Dry-roasting and grinding for raita, chaat and garam masala

How to cook it

Into hot oil first, before onions or garlic, for about ten seconds until they sizzle and darken slightly. For roasted cumin powder, toast in a dry pan until fragrant, cool, then grind. With a pack this size, keep a small working jar filled and the rest tightly sealed so the aroma holds.

Pack and storage

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

Priya Sambhar Masala is the ground blend for South Indian sambar, so a pot needs only dal, tamarind and vegetables alongside it. It is rounded and mildly hot, with the roasted note that separates a sambar powder from a general-purpose curry powder.

Best for

• Sambar with drumstick, pumpkin or mixed vegetables
• Idli and vada sambar
• Kootu and other dal-and-vegetable dishes

Using it

Cook toor dal until it is soft enough to mash. Separately boil the vegetables with tamarind water and salt until tender, then add one and a half to two teaspoons of the masala for four servings and let it simmer for five minutes so the powder loses its raw edge before the dal goes in. Finish with a tempering of mustard seeds, dried red chilli, curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida in oil, poured over the pot off the heat.

Pack and storage

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

MDH Hyderabadi Biryani Masala is the blend for dum biryani in the Hyderabadi style, where the character is aromatic and warm rather than sour. Whole-spice notes of cardamom, clove and cinnamon lead, with moderate chilli behind them.

Best for

• Hyderabadi chicken or mutton dum biryani
• Marinating meat in yoghurt before layering
• Vegetable biryani and spiced rice dishes

Using it

Most of it belongs in the marinade. Mix about three teaspoons into yoghurt with ginger, garlic, fried onion and mint for half a kilo of meat, and leave it for at least an hour. Layer with rice boiled to seventy per cent, seal the pot and cook on the lowest possible flame for twenty-five minutes. Keep a pinch back to scatter between the layers.

Pack and storage

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

Priya Rasam Masala is the ground blend for rasam, with pepper and cumin forward and coriander and dried chilli behind them. Rasam is the thin, sour, peppery broth eaten with rice towards the end of a South Indian meal, and this blend is built for that rather than for a thick gravy.

Best for

• Tomato rasam and pepper rasam
• Rasam rice with a spoon of ghee
• Drinking as a clear broth on its own

Using it

Simmer tamarind water with chopped tomato, salt and a teaspoon of the masala for four servings until the raw tamarind smell is gone, about five minutes. Add thin dal water or plain water, and take the pot off the heat the moment it froths at the edges. Rasam should never reach a rolling boil, which dulls the pepper. Temper mustard seeds and curry leaves in ghee, pour them over, and add fresh coriander at the last moment.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Amchur Powder is dried green mango, ground to a pale beige powder. It is a souring agent — sharp and fruity, with none of the wetness that lemon juice or tamarind would add to a dish.

Best for

• Chana masala, chaat masala and aloo chaat
• Dry vegetable stir-fries and stuffed parathas
• Marinades, and samosa and pakora fillings

Using it

Add it near the end of cooking rather than at the start — long heat dulls the sourness. Half to one teaspoon will sharpen a family-sized dish. Because it is dry, it is the right choice for anything that must not go watery, such as a paratha stuffing or a dry sabzi. A squeeze of lemon can stand in, but the flavour is fruitier, not the same.

Pack and storage

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

MDH Rajmah Masala is the blend for the Punjabi red kidney bean curry eaten with rice. It is warm and moderately tangy, with enough body to season beans that are simmered long and mashed slightly to thicken their own gravy.

Best for

• Rajma chawal with red kidney beans
• Mixed bean and chickpea curries
• Lobia and other whole-pulse dishes

Using it

Soak the kidney beans overnight, then pressure cook them in fresh water until soft enough to crush, around six whistles. Fry onion, ginger, garlic and tomato, add two and a half teaspoons of the masala for 250g of dry beans and cook until the oil separates. Add the beans with their liquid, mash a few against the pan and simmer twenty minutes so the gravy thickens.

Pack and storage

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

MTR Vangi Bath Masala is a spice powder for making vangi bath, a South Indian rice dish made with brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) and a distinctive spice blend. The masala saves the effort of roasting and grinding individual spices at home, giving a consistent flavour each time.

Vangi bath made with this masala has a robust, spiced and slightly tangy taste, with the softened brinjal absorbing the flavours of the spice mix through the rice.

How to use

• Cook rice separately and let it cool slightly.
• Saute chopped brinjal and onions in oil, then add the vangi bath masala and a little water, cooking until the vegetables soften.
• Mix the cooked rice into the brinjal mixture until evenly coated, then serve warm.

Pack size: 100g. Store in a cool, dry place.

TRS Cumin Powder (Jeera) is ground cumin seed — warm, earthy and faintly smoky, and one of the two ground spices most Indian gravies are built on. This is the large 400 g catering-size pack for a kitchen that goes through it steadily.

Best for

• Everyday curry and gravy bases
• Jeera aloo, raita and chaat
• Kebab mixes, marinades and dry rubs

Using it

Fry it with the softened onions for 30 to 60 seconds before adding tomatoes or water, so the raw edge cooks off. Two parts coriander powder to one part cumin is a reliable starting point for a north Indian gravy. Because the pack is large, decant a few weeks' worth into a small jar and keep the rest sealed — ground spice fades once air gets at it.

Pack and storage

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

MTR Lemon Rice Powder is a ready-made seasoning mix for preparing lemon rice, also known as chitranna, a popular South Indian rice dish flavoured with lemon, mustard seeds, curry leaves and peanuts. Instead of preparing the tempering and spice mix from scratch, this powder is simply mixed into cooked rice.

The finished dish has a tangy, citrusy flavour balanced with the nutty crunch of peanuts and the mild heat of curry leaf tempering, and is often eaten on its own or packed as a travel meal.

How to use

• Cook plain rice and let it cool slightly.
• Mix in the lemon rice powder along with a little oil, tossing gently until evenly coated.
• Adjust the amount of powder to taste and serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

Pack size: 100g. Store in a cool, dry place.

TRS Cinnamon (Dalchini) is whole cinnamon bark in quills — warm, woody and sweetly aromatic, and firmer and stronger in flavour than the soft rolled Ceylon type. It is one of the whole spices that goes into the oil at the start of a biryani or a korma.

Best for

• Biryani, pulao and korma
• Garam masala and whole-spice blends
• Masala chai, and slow-cooked meat curries

How to cook it

Break off a two or three centimetre piece and fry it in hot ghee with bay leaf, cardamom and cloves for a few seconds until it swells and smells sweet. Remove before serving. For chai, a small piece simmered with the tea and milk is enough; the bark is hard, so grind it in a spice mill rather than a pestle.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Haldi / Turmeric Powder is ground turmeric root, deep yellow and slightly bitter with an earthy, musky aroma. It goes into almost every Indian savoury dish, usually in small quantity, as much for colour as for taste.

Best for

• Dals, sambar and everyday vegetable curries
• Marinating fish and chicken before frying
• Rice dishes, pickles and spice pastes

Using it

A quarter to half a teaspoon is enough for a family-sized dal — too much turns the dish bitter and muddy. Add it early, with the onions or straight into the cooking dal, so it has time to lose its raw taste. It stains cloth and plastic readily, so wipe spills straight away.

Pack and storage

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

MTR Sambar Masala Powder is a ready-made spice blend from MTR, made for preparing sambar, the South Indian lentil and vegetable stew served with rice, idli, dosa and vada. The powder is a blend of roasted lentils, dried red chillies, coriander seeds and other spices ground together, giving sambar its characteristic tangy, spiced flavour.

How to use

• Cook toor dal (split pigeon peas) with vegetables until soft.
• Add tamarind pulp or paste, then stir in the sambar masala powder to taste.
• Simmer for a few minutes and finish with a tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves in oil.

Packed in a 200g pack. Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and reseal the pack tightly after opening.

TRS Mustard Seeds Brown are the small reddish-brown seeds used across South and West Indian cooking. Raw they taste of almost nothing; the flavour only appears once they hit hot oil and pop, turning nutty and gently pungent.

Best for

• Tempering for dal, sambar and rasam
• Poriyal, thoran and other South Indian vegetable dishes
• Pickles, and Bengali fish curries

How to cook it

Heat the oil until it shimmers, add the seeds, and cover the pan — they jump. Once the popping slows, add curry leaves, dried chilli or urad dal and pour the lot over the dish. If the seeds sit in lukewarm oil without popping, the tempering will taste raw; if they blacken, start again.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Garam Masala Whole is the unground blend — whole warm spices left intact so you can fry them in the oil at the start of a dish, or grind them fresh when you want the aroma at full strength.

Best for

• Biryani, pulao and korma
• Grinding your own garam masala powder
• Slow-cooked meat curries and rich gravies

How to cook it

Heat ghee or oil until it shimmers, add a spoonful of the whole spices and let them crackle and swell for ten to fifteen seconds before the onions go in — that is the whole point of using them whole. Fish out the larger pieces before serving. To grind your own, dry-roast a batch until fragrant, cool completely, then mill and keep in a small airtight jar.

Pack and storage

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

MDH Kasoori Methi is dried fenugreek leaf, sold whole rather than ground, and it is a finishing herb rather than a masala. It carries a distinctive faint bitterness and a savoury aroma that is instantly recognisable in Punjabi restaurant cooking.

Best for

• Butter chicken, paneer makhani and other creamy gravies
• Dal makhani, rajma and methi malai matar
• Kneading into paratha and naan dough

Using it

Crush it between your palms over the pan so the leaves break up and the aroma releases, and add it in the last two minutes of cooking. Around a teaspoon of crushed leaf is enough for a dish serving four. It is potent, and too much turns a gravy bitter, so start small. In dough, work half a teaspoon into each cup of flour.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Poppy Seeds are the small cream-white Indian variety, khus khus — paler and milder than the blue-grey European type. Ground with water they make a thick, faintly nutty paste that thickens a gravy without any flour or cream.

Best for

• Korma, and Bengali and Hyderabadi gravies
• Aloo posto and other posto dishes
• Sweets, and sprinkling over naan and breads

Using it

Soak them in warm water for twenty to thirty minutes before grinding — dry seeds are too small and hard for most mills to catch. Grind to a smooth paste with a little of the soaking water and stir it into the gravy towards the end, then cook gently, as the paste can catch and scorch on the bottom of the pan.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Bay Leaves are the dried Indian bay leaf, tej patta — long, ribbed leaves with three veins running lengthways and a gentle cassia-like aroma. They are a different leaf from the Mediterranean bay used in stews, and milder in effect.

Best for

• Biryani, pulao and jeera rice
• Korma, rogan josh and slow-cooked meat curries
• Dal, and whole garam masala blends

How to cook it

Drop one or two leaves into hot ghee or oil at the very start, with the cinnamon and cardamom, and let them crackle for a few seconds before the onions go in. They release their aroma slowly, so leave them in for the whole cook and remove before serving. Crumbled leaves burn faster, so use them whole.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Coriander Seeds (Dhania Whole) are the whole, round seeds — pale brown, hollow and light, with a citrus-and-sage aroma that is far brighter than anything you get from a packet of ready-ground powder.

Best for

• Grinding fresh coriander powder as you need it
• Homemade sambar, rasam and garam masala blends
• Coarse rubs, pickles and tempering

How to cook it

Dry-roast over medium heat for a minute or two, until the colour deepens slightly and the kitchen smells of them, then let them cool completely before grinding. Grind only what you will use within a month or so. Cracked coarsely rather than ground, they give a good texture on grilled meat and roast potatoes.

Pack and storage

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