Everything you need for the trade

Tools of the trade!

Posted by Papli on

Cooking curries requires a select range of basic spices that are quintessentially the building blocks offering layers of flavour.

The foundation of most curries are whole spices. These arromats flavour the oil which ‘”carries” the flavour to the next stage to combine with all other spices you add.
Each time it changes the base profile and there develops a complex chain of evolving flavours.

I like playing with spices, experimenting, exploring and for this reason I like to keep my spices separate.

I have organised my spices in a fashion that suits the kind of food I make…
Its arranged to be accessible.
Its also grouped for my convenience.

I have my steel masala dhaba.
This has my powders and centrally panch puran. Surrounding it are all powders.
Cumin
Coriander
Tumeric
Chilli
Curry powder
Paprika/Kashmiri chilli powder.

I always have the cumin and chilli either side of my tumeric just as my mum taught me when I got mixed up with my cumin and coriander as a kid.
She said that, that way I will always know my cumin and chilli from my coriander and paprika!

These are for me my essential powders I use most regularly.

The next storage is a life saver!
I really have no patience to open endless jars for my whole spices so I have them in these four compartments. This one is such convenience with its 4 open compartments under 1 flip cover!
The essential whole spices.

Panch Puran for most of my veg dishes.
Cloves, peppercorns and bayleaves in next.
Then cardamoms, cinnamon, black cardamoms, star anise and mace.
The last has an assortment of dried chillies

When I’m tempering dhal…I have everything in that container…the same when starting a curry, its all there.

Next I have a small plastic dhaba with all my seeds. I don’t use these so often. Sometimes Fenugreek seeds for fish. I have some dried methi leaves in there but again as I seldom use this I do have a larger jar for my methi leaves.

Lastly I call this my seasoning Trio.
Whenever I make roasts, marinades, sauces, western dishes this has the 3 ingredients I use the most in all other cooking.
Coarse ground pepper
Chilli flakes
Sea salt

Chilli flakes, coarse ground pepper
and sea salt

These are my tool boxes. With these I can pretty much cook any curry or dish.

Beyond these I have many many more spices,
Masala’s and home made blends.

The world of spices always intices me.
It thrills and excites me.
Its very satisfying using these unique ingredients to create an array of culinary delights…!

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