Common Kitchen Ingredients

In spite of the great diversity in Indian Cuisine, kitchens in Indian households stock some basic ingredients used to cook everyday food. Remember women in India spend a lot of time in the kitchen except few in major cities who are working. The daily routine of cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner prevails in almost all households in the country. That Indian food is terribly spicy and hot is a myth as far as the daily diet is concerned. The daily diet comprises mildly spiced food and is rarely hot as presumed. 

Indian Spices

While the staple fare is rice, roti, lentil soup or dal, and vegetables among vegetarians, meat eaters add meat to their diet often replacing the vegetable. Hence few commonly used spices in a staple diet are:

• Red Chili
• Cumin Powder
• Garam Masala
• Turmeric
• Mustard Seeds
• Cumin Seeds
• Ajowain
• Asafoetida
• Dried Fenugreek Leaf Powder
• Fenugreek Seeds

In most of the common recipes, mint leaves or coriander is sprinkled over to impart an herbal touch of freshness. These herbs are rich in Vitamin C and impart amazing flavor.   Although these seasonings appear too common, a magical amalgamation of these in varied proportions imparts amazing and varied tastes. It would be wrong to term these spices as commonplace they are health-giving and add to the basic flavor of lentils and vegetables. 

In South Indian Households, dal is replaced by sambar which again is a flavorful lentil soup with tamarind, tomatoes, and vegetables added to it. In Southern India, people are predominately rice eaters and they consume little wheat in the shape of chapatis. This is applicable to East India where fish curry replaces dal often.       

All the common ingredients described above are available in powdered or seed form in the open markets or in packets. Of late packet, masalas are capturing the market but the trend is moving towards whole spices in modern packing. Besides the whole spices, the trend is also favoring ready-to-mix whole spice recipes in modern packing. The recipe comprises popular dishes which are complex and require time and patience to make at home. 

The alternative in modern packaging is ready-to-mix whole-spice recipes that save time. All one has to do is open the packet, pour whole spices and roast them lightly and then grind. The powdered spice mix so obtained has to be mixed in the recipe to ready the dish. 

The concept of whole spices is picking ground as the ingredients can be judged for quality and freshness unlike in the case of packed powders. In the case of the latter is difficult to make out what is mixed in the powder and how fresh it is?  Thus, in time to come whole spices consumption in Indian kitchens will rise exponentially.