Spices & Seasonings

Aachi Sambar Masala Powder is the general-purpose sambar blend, ground fine and balanced so it works with whatever vegetables are in the house rather than being tuned to one regional style. It is mildly hot with the roasted note that a sambar powder needs and a general curry powder does not have.

Best for

• Everyday sambar with mixed vegetables
• Idli, vada and dosa sambar
• Vegetable kootu and poriyal

Using it

Cook toor dal separately until it mashes easily. Boil the vegetables with tamarind water and salt until tender, then stir in one and a half to two teaspoons of the powder for four servings and let it simmer five minutes before the dal goes in, so the powder cooks out. Adding it at the very end leaves a raw, dusty taste. Finish with mustard seeds, dried red chilli, curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida fried in oil and poured over off the heat.

Pack and storage

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

Telugu Foods Kashmiri Chilli is the whole dried chilli used for deep red colour rather than heat. It is noticeably milder than a Guntur chilli, which is why it is what goes into tandoori marinades, rogan josh and butter chicken, where the dish needs to look red without becoming too hot to eat.

Best for

• Tandoori marinades and tikka
• Rogan josh, butter chicken and other North Indian gravies
• Colouring pickles, chutneys and chilli pastes

Using it

Soak four or five chillies in hot water for twenty minutes and grind them to a smooth paste; a wet paste releases far more colour into the oil than dry powder does. Fry the paste in the oil at the start of the gravy until the oil takes on the colour, which is the step that makes the difference. For a tempering, use them whole and lift them out before they darken. Mix them with a hotter chilli when you want both colour and heat.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight jar away from light.

Schani Cumin Powder is ground jeera — warm, earthy and faintly bitter, one of the two or three spices an Indian kitchen never runs out of. 100g.

Ground cumin goes in where whole seeds would be too coarse: into curry and sabzi masalas, dal, chole, rajma and kebab mixes, into raita, buttermilk and jaljeera, and dusted over chaat and fruit. It is also a backbone of garam masala and of most Middle Eastern and Mexican spice blends.

Add it to the pan with the onions and tomatoes rather than at the very start, since ground cumin scorches faster than the whole seed. Keep the pack tightly closed in a cool, dark cupboard — ground spice loses its aroma quickly once air gets to it.

MDH Chicken Curry Masala is the everyday blend for chicken simmered in an onion and tomato gravy, rather than a regional speciality mix. Coriander and cumin give it body, with moderate chilli and warm spices rounding out the finish.

Best for

• Home-style chicken curry for a weeknight
• Chicken with yoghurt, coconut milk or cashew paste
• Chicken keema and semi-dry chicken fry

Using it

Fry the onion until properly golden, add ginger and garlic, then the masala, and give it half a minute in the oil before the chicken goes in. Two and a half teaspoons suits half a kilo of chicken. Let the pieces take on colour in the masala before adding water, then cover and simmer fifteen to twenty minutes, finishing uncovered to thicken the gravy.

Pack and storage

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

MDH Kitchen King Masala is an all-purpose blend for vegetarian gravies, meant to be the single jar you use when a dish has no masala of its own. It is rounded and aromatic rather than hot, so it fills out a gravy without pushing it in one direction.

Best for

• Mixed vegetable and paneer gravies
• Aloo matar, kofta and everyday dal
• Pulao and stuffed vegetable dishes

Using it

Add it once the onion and tomato base has cooked down and the oil has started to separate, and fry it for half a minute before the liquid goes in. Two teaspoons is about right for a dish serving four. It works well alongside a plain chilli powder, which lets you set the heat separately from the aroma. A small pinch stirred in at the end refreshes the fragrance.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Cumin Seeds (Jeera Whole) are the slim, ridged brown seeds that start most Indian tempering. Whole cumin gives bursts of warm, smoky flavour through a dish in a way that ground cumin, which disappears into the gravy, does not.

Best for

• Tempering for dal, rice and vegetables
• Jeera rice and jeera aloo
• Roasting and grinding for raita, chaat and masala blends

How to cook it

Drop the seeds into hot oil or ghee and wait for them to sizzle and darken by a shade — about ten seconds — before the onions go in. For raita or chaat, dry-roast them in a pan with no oil until fragrant, cool, then crush coarsely; roasted cumin tastes completely different from raw and is worth the two minutes.

Pack and storage

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

MDH Kashmiri Mirchi Powder is a single ground chilli rather than a blend, and it is used mainly for colour. It gives a deep red gravy with only mild heat, which is why it is the chilli of choice where the dish should look fiery but taste gentle.

Best for

• Rogan josh, butter chicken and tandoori marinades
• Tomato gravies that need depth of colour
• Pickles, chutneys and stuffed vegetables

Using it

Bloom it in hot oil or ghee for a few seconds off a high flame, as the colour releases into fat far better than into water. Keep the pan moving so it does not scorch and turn bitter. A teaspoon or two colours a curry for four. When you want real heat as well, pair it with a hotter chilli powder rather than simply using more of this one.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Star Anise (Chakra Phool) is the dried eight-pointed seed pod with a strong, sweet liquorice aroma. One or two whole stars will carry a large pot, so it is a spice to use sparingly.

Best for

• Biryani, pulao and Hyderabadi rice dishes
• Garam masala and whole-spice blends
• Slow-cooked meat curries, stocks and braises

How to cook it

Add the whole star to hot ghee or oil at the start, with the cinnamon and cardamom, and let it perfume the fat for a few seconds before the onions go in. Leave it in while the dish cooks and fish it out before serving, or warn whoever is eating — biting into one is overpowering. Broken points work as well as whole stars.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Ajwain / Lovage Seeds are tiny ridged seeds with a sharp, thyme-like pungency — the same compound that gives thyme its bite is what you taste here. They are strong, so a pinch goes a long way.

Best for

• Paratha, puri and savoury pastry dough
• Pakora and bhajia batter
• Fish and prawn marinades, and pickles

How to cook it

Crush the seeds lightly between your palms as you add them — whole and uncrushed they give up very little. A quarter teaspoon is plenty for a batch of dough or batter. In a tempering they go into hot oil for a few seconds only, usually alongside cumin.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Coriander / Dhania Powder is ground coriander seed — mild, citrusy and faintly sweet. It is used in larger quantity than most ground spices because it does the thickening as well as the flavouring in a gravy.

Best for

• Curry and korma bases, paired with cumin powder
• Chana masala, rajma and vegetable curries
• Marinades, and homemade masala blends

Using it

Add it after the onions have browned and fry for under a minute before the tomatoes or water go in. Two parts coriander to one part cumin is the usual balance in a north Indian gravy. If a curry tastes too sharp, another spoonful of coriander powder rounds it out better than sugar.

Pack and storage

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

MDH Meat Curry Masala is a dark, robust blend for slow-cooked mutton and lamb, where the spicing has to hold up over a long simmer. It is heavier and warmer than an everyday sabzi masala, with pepper and toasted whole-spice notes coming through.

Best for

• Mutton or lamb curry with onion and tomato
• Goat curry cooked in a pressure cooker
• Beef and other slow-braised meat dishes

Using it

Brown the meat first, then add the masala to the fried onion, ginger and garlic and cook it in the oil for a minute before any water goes in. Three teaspoons suits half a kilo of meat. Pressure cook for four to five whistles, or simmer covered for an hour, then reduce the gravy uncovered at the end so the spices concentrate.

Pack and storage

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

Udhaiyam Asafoetida Powder, or hing, is a pungent resin powder used in tiny quantities at the start of a dish. Straight from the jar the smell is sharp and off-putting; fried in hot oil for a second or two it turns savoury and rounded, and that transformation is the entire reason it is used.

Best for

• Tempering for dal, sambar and rasam
• Vegetable poriyal and kootu
• Pickles, and cooking for households that avoid onion and garlic

Using it

A pinch is the measure, not a spoon. Add it to the hot oil after the mustard seeds have popped and before anything else goes in, and move quickly, because it burns within seconds and turns acrid. In dishes cooked without onion or garlic it does much of the savoury work on its own. Keep the jar tightly shut and stored on its own, as the aroma will get into anything nearby.

Pack and storage

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

LG Hing Powder (Asafoetida) is a pungent spice essential in Indian vegetarian cooking. Even a pinch adds a distinctive savoury depth to dals, curries, and pickles.