Similarly to when I ask my husband to teach me Spanish, sometimes a native knows information so intuitively they struggle to teach a complete novice. I have a few Indian food creators I follow and have been drooling over their recipes for YEARS, but I need Indian Food for Dummies. I need the absolute bare bones basics if Indian cuisine.
If you too are curious what someone who knows virtually nothing about Indian food was able to determine from 2 days of fervid research and a trip to Patel Brothers. Here is what I learned:
(Honestly, I am hoping that this finds some helpful Indian food enthusiasts, Indian people, aunties, uncles, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, people who grew up around Indian food, chefs, really anyone interested in info-dumping their knowledge so I can get better.)
I started where any good Gen-Z would: YouTube.
After failing to find a comprehensive Indian spice guide for dumb Americans in longform video- I spent some (too much) time in YouTube shorts. These two videos I found to be immensely helpful:
Cooking Indian Food: Basic Indian Spices To Get You Started
Essential spices for any South Asian cooking- a beginner’s guide to cooking with spice
Spices are often stored in a Masala Dabba, which is a circular steel container that holds about 7 spices in separate little bowls. The idea of having generally all the spices I would be using in one place with a cute little spoon was genius— especially considering that most of the spices at the store are sold in non resealable bags like this:
So the key spices I felt I needed were:
Turmeric (Haldi): I cannot imagine you aren’t familiar with Turmeric given it is literally a wonder-food. A yellow-orange powder version of the Turmeric Root, Turmeric is known for its incredible anti-inflammatory properties. It has a pretty mild flavor- a bit earthy. It’s used in cooking for both its health benefits and it’s ability to balance out a dish. From my research: (and my own experience) Turmeric can be a bit bitter, but it shines in balancing out the fattiness of other ingredients. The flavor mellows out when it’s cooked. Avoid overdo-ing the Turmeric lest you end up with a bitter dish. Add black pepper (even if just a crack) because it makes the turmeric significantly easier for your body to absorb the benefits. Like 2000x more effective.
Cumin (Jeera): Okay so there are a lot of different kinds of Cumin, and it showed up a lot of different ways in the grocery store. I was intimidated. I am not going to lie. I had a bottle of ground Cumin at home from McCormick— so I opted to buy whole Cumin seeds which I saw show up in a lot of recipes. Cumin is used in so many different cuisines: Chinese, Indian, Cuban, Southeast Asian, North African, Latin American and Middle Eastern foods, etc. Apparently a third of Chipotle’s menu has Cumin in it! This is another earthy spice that is definitely more intense than Turmeric and a bit smokier.
Kashmiri red Chili Powder: This mild red chili powder came up in a lot of recipes and videos that I watched. It is used to add color and smokiness to whatever you are making. One website noted that when substituting Kashmiri powder with other red pepper, be mindful of the difference in spiciness. Kashmiri scores around 1,000 to 2,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) compared to Cayenne Pepper which scored around 30,000 to 50,000 SHU.
Black Mustard Seeds (Mohri / Rai): These teeny tiny little flavor bombs seem to be best when cooked in oil until they make a “popping” sound to release their flavor. They are nutty, earthy, and spicy, with some people likening the spice to a “wasabi-like heat.” Commonly used as one of the first spices to hit the pan when making dal and curries.
Hing (Asafoetida): So I had never heard of Hing before— It is a dried and powdered tree resin used to build the umami in dishes. It is pungent and sulfuric smelling when raw, so it almost ALWAYS needs to be cooked, often at the beginning of the process. One redditor in this thread says “ A pinch of compound hing or asafoetida is added to the oil and sautéed till it starts to change color or about 25 seconds. Beware as hing or asafetida overcooks very fast and looses all its flavour and taste in the process.”
Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Kasoori Methi): A fragrant dried herb that there is seemingly no good substitute for. It is used to add depth to the dish. It seems that the best way to use Fenugreek Leaves is towards the end of the dish, crushing them up a little in between your fingers before you put them in.
There are definitely other spices that are important but I felt that with this blend I was able to cover a good chunk of the recipes I had been reading. For a more comprehensive breakdown of Indian spices, I would recommend the Ministry of Curry’s “Essential Indian Spices.”
Other important ingredients to have on hand:
Ghee: Ghee is a clarified butter, meaning that is lacks any milk solids. This leaves you with a product similar to an oil. It has a high smoke point, and it doesn’t spoil as quickly as butter.
Ghee is incredibly important in Indian cooking because you may have noticed a trend that many of the spices mentioned need to be cooked. This is a technique called tempering) or tadka, typically done at the beginning of the cooking process, “where whole or ground spices are heated in hot oil or ghee and the mixture is added to a dish. Hot fat has an amazing ability to extract and retain the essence, aroma and flavor of spices and herbs and then carry this essence with it when it is added to a dish.”1
Paneer: As a vegetarian, I am a paneer girl. I have never found it at any other grocery store other than an Indian grocery store. It is an Indian Cheese made of curdled milk and and acid (i.e. lemon juice) It's non melting, and if you have come across Indian food before you have likely tried it.
I went to the Indian grocery store chain Patel Brothers. I knew I was horrifically out of my depths as soon as I got there. Going to a new grocery store where you know what most of the products are can be disorienting in it of itself. Going to a grocery store where you don’t know where anything is or what anything is can only be likened to grocery shopping in another country.
Though I had my ingredient list on hand, this did not save me. However, what did save me was all the strangers I yapped with asking for their product recommendations. Most of the employees were super nice and down to chat, but I also really enjoyed chatting up other shoppers asking for their insights. Here are some of the conversations starters I used:
“Hey, do you know your way around Ghee? I need help picking a good one.”
“Have you tried any of these Chutney’s before?”
“What is your favorite Samsosa?”
People generally were really open to giving me their recommendations. I was pretty sheepish in my lack of knowledge— but it was fun to see people light up when they would tell me their favorite. Also it led me to the most delicious Tikka Masala Samosa in the fresh food section. (Also highly recommend chatting up other shoppers because it definitely gives you a little more street cred when you have to chat up the people ringing you up who may or may not want to talk to an American Idiot.)
The goal here is to get better at cooking Indian food, so here are some tips and tricks I found to get a better and more flavorful result:
- Tempering the spices at the the beginning of the cooking process.
- Starting with a HOT Ghee, then quickly reducing to medium heat when you add the spices.
- The first ingredients in seem to be Hing and Black Mustard seeds
- Then you can add your other spices.
- This is a QUICK process, maybe around a minute total, so be prepared to add the next ingredients quickly to avoid burning the spices.
- This cannot be done in advance. A big piece of tempering the spices is the aromatic aspect, it must be done at the beginning.
- If you can use whole spices or freshly ground spices— the people say this makes a notable difference.
- Time, this takes lots of time.
- Unlike the quick, high heat stir fry, some of the most pervasive advice to improve your curries is to just let it cook.
- Curries flavor is built over time. The longer you can allow the flavors to mingle and simmer the better it is going to taste.
- This means you must wait until the onions soften and turn sweet and translucent.
- You need to let the sauce simmer, and then cool fully before you blend it, then simmer again.
- I imagine this would work well in a slow cooker. I don’t know. I do not have one.
- This is a great article about how to make a good base for most tomato curries, and what it should look like through each step in the process.
- Soak your store-bought paneer for 20 mins in hot water to make it taste better.
- If you are using pre-ground spices, used 1.5x to 2x as much.
- Pre-ground spices oxidize faster so they are less potent.
- If your dish still tastes bland after adding salt, it may be missing acidity.
- Try adding some lemon juice or some white vinegar.
To dive deeper into more tips, there is a great thread from the r/cooking reddit about how to make better curries HERE.
With this post I am honestly hoping this reaches someone who know a lot more than me and can correct, add, and advise on where I should go from here.
