Whole Spices, Seeds & Herbs

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 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 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 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.

TRS Dried Red Chillies Long are the long slim dried chillies used for tempering across South India. They carry real heat, more than the Kashmiri type, and give a sharper, smokier note when they hit hot oil.

Best for

• Tempering dal, sambar, rasam and vegetables
• Grinding into chilli powder and chutney powders
• Pickles, and masala pastes

How to cook it

Break each chilli in half or leave it whole depending on how much heat you want — the seeds carry most of it, so shake them out for a gentler result. Drop into hot oil with mustard seeds and curry leaves for a few seconds until the skin darkens and puffs, but not until it blackens. For a paste, soak in hot water for twenty minutes first.

Pack and storage

150 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.

Telugu Foods Guntur Red Chilli is the long dried red chilli that Andhra cooking is built on, and it is hot in a way that the milder Kashmiri chilli beside it on the shelf is not. Whole chillies keep their heat and aroma far longer than ground powder, so buying them whole and grinding as needed is worth the extra minute.

Best for

• Andhra curries, pappu and vepudu
• Pickles, podi and chutney powders
• Grinding into fresh chilli powder

Using it

Break or snip the chillies and shake out the seeds if you want colour and flavour without the full heat, since most of the heat sits in the seeds and the pale ribs. For a tempering, fry one or two whole in hot oil with mustard seeds for a few seconds only, until they darken slightly; let them blacken and the whole dish turns bitter. To grind, dry roast on low heat until brittle, cool completely, then grind. Start with fewer than a recipe suggests and adjust.

Pack and storage

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

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.

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 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.

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.

Aachi Kashmiri Chilli Whole is the mild dried red chilli kept for colour rather than heat. Whole chillies hold their colour and aroma far better than a ground powder does, so grinding or soaking them as you need them gives a noticeably deeper red than a jar of powder that has been open for months.

Best for

• Tandoori and tikka marinades
• Butter chicken, rogan josh and other rich North Indian gravies
• Chilli pastes, pickles and chutneys

Using it

For colour, soak four or five chillies in hot water for twenty minutes, drain, and grind to a smooth paste, then fry that paste in oil until the oil itself turns red. A wet paste gives up far more colour than dry powder. For tempering, drop one or two in whole and take them out before they darken. If the dish also needs heat, use these for the colour and a hotter chilli for the bite.

Pack and storage

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

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.

TRS Crushed Chilli is dried red chilli broken into coarse flakes with the seeds left in. Being coarse rather than ground, it gives flecks of heat you can see and pockets of it you can taste, instead of the even warmth of a powder.

Best for

• Finishing pizza, pasta and grilled vegetables
• Chilli oil, marinades and dry rubs
• Tempering, pickles and Indo-Chinese sauces

Using it

Sprinkle it over at the table, or warm it briefly in oil to draw the heat and colour out — fifteen seconds over a low flame is enough, and any longer will scorch the flakes. The seeds carry most of the heat, so give the jar a shake before measuring or the strength varies from spoon to spoon.

Pack and storage

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

TRS Fenugreek Methi Seeds are the small, hard, amber seeds with a maple-like aroma and a pronounced bitterness. This is the 1 kg pack — the size for pickle-making and for grinding your own sambar and rasam powders rather than for occasional tempering.

Best for

• Mango, lime and mixed pickles in quantity
• Homemade sambar powder and rasam powder
• South Indian tempering, fish curries and sprouting

How to cook it

In a tempering they go into hot oil first but for a second or two only — past golden they turn harshly bitter and there is no rescuing the dish. A quarter teaspoon is right for a family-sized pot. For idli and dosa batter, soak a teaspoon with the rice; it helps the batter ferment and gives a softer result.

Pack and storage

1 kg. 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.

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.

TRS Kashmiri Chilli Whole are whole dried Kashmiri chillies — short, wrinkled and deep red. They are used for the colour they give a dish rather than for heat, and are noticeably milder than ordinary dried red chillies.

Best for

• Grinding your own Kashmiri chilli powder
• Rogan josh, tandoori marinades and red masala pastes
• Vindaloo and Goan recipe pastes, and pickles

How to cook it

For a paste, tear off the stalks, shake out most of the seeds and soak the chillies in hot water for twenty minutes before grinding — that is what gives the deep red colour without the grit. For tempering, fry a whole chilli in hot oil for a few seconds until it puffs and darkens slightly. Leave the seeds in if you want more heat.

Pack and storage

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

Kings Mace Flakes Nutmeg (Javitri) 50g 

TRS Mace (Javantri) is the lacy orange-brown covering that grows around the nutmeg seed, dried into brittle blades. It tastes like nutmeg but lighter and more floral, and it colours a pale gravy far less than most whole spices.

Best for

• Korma, white gravies and Mughlai dishes
• Biryani and garam masala blends
• Kebab and kofta mixes, and milk sweets

Using it

A single blade is enough for a family-sized pot. Fry it in ghee with the other whole spices at the start, or grind it into a masala with cardamom and nutmeg. It is brittle and grinds easily, but it clogs a wet grinder, so use a dry spice mill. Remove whole blades before serving.

Pack and storage

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

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 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.