India has no single cuisine but many regional ones, united by a shared technique of blooming whole spices in fat and layering ground masalas through a dish.
Overview¶
"Indian food" is a convenient label for something closer to a continent's worth of cooking. A Kashmiri Pandit kitchen, a Bengali fish curry, a Gujarati thali and a Kerala Syrian Christian beef fry share very little on the plate, and the word curry — a European catch-all, probably derived from the Tamil kari — is not how most Indians describe their own food. What the regions do share is a way of thinking about spice: whole spices are fried in hot fat to release their oils, ground spices are cooked out until they lose their raw edge, and different spices go in at different moments so that a single dish carries several layers of flavour.
The other shared idea is the masala, which simply means a mixture. There is no fixed recipe for most masalas; families and cooks grind their own, and a jar labelled garam masala in Delhi will not taste like one in Mumbai.
The core palette¶
A working Indian spice box (the masala dabba) usually holds seven or so tins, chosen for the household's regional style. A common north Indian selection is cumin, coriander seed, turmeric, chilli powder, black mustard seed, garam masala and fenugreek or cardamom. Beyond the box:
- Warm whole spices: green and black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon or cassia, Indian bay leaf (tej patta, from a Cinnamomum tree, not the European bay), black pepper and mace.
- Seeds for tempering: cumin, mustard, fennel, nigella, fenugreek and ajwain.
- Souring agents: tamarind in the south, amchur (dried mango) and anardana (dried pomegranate) in the north, kokum on the west coast.
- Aromatics: ginger, garlic and green chillies, very often pounded together as ginger-garlic paste.
- Asafoetida (hing), used by the pinch, especially in Jain and Brahmin cooking that avoids onion and garlic.
Chillies arrived with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century (see how-chillies-spread-around-the-world); before then heat came from black pepper and long pepper. Today Kashmiri chilli is prized for colour more than fire, while Andhra and Chettinad cooks favour much hotter dried reds.
Regional differences¶
North¶
Punjabi and Mughlai cooking lean on dairy (ghee, cream, yoghurt, paneer), onion-tomato bases and the warm "garam" spices. Tandoor cooking gives tandoori masala marinades; kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaf) is crumbled over butter chicken and dals. Kashmiri cooking uses fennel and dried ginger powder heavily, often without onion or garlic, alongside saffron and Kashmiri chilli.
East¶
Bengal tempers with panch phoron — equal parts cumin, fennel, fenugreek, nigella and mustard (or the related radhuni) — and grinds raw mustard seed into pungent pastes for fish. Mustard oil is the cooking fat, heated until it stops smoking raw.
South¶
Southern kitchens begin many dishes with a tadka of mustard seed, curry leaves, dried red chilli and urad dal. Sambar powder, rasam, coconut, tamarind and black pepper dominate. Kerala uses coconut oil and was the historic heart of the pepper trade; Chettinad in Tamil Nadu is known for complex dry-roasted masalas including kalpasi (a lichen) and marathi mokku (a dried flower bud).
West¶
Gujarati food balances sweet, sour and hot, often with jaggery and asafoetida. Maharashtra has goda masala, dark with roasted coconut and sesame. Goa, shaped by four centuries of Portuguese rule, gives vindaloo (from vinha d'alhos, wine and garlic) and xacuti, rich with poppy seed and toasted coconut.
Key techniques¶
- Tadka / tempering: whole spices sizzled in ghee or oil, either at the start of a dish or poured over at the end. See tempering-spices and blooming-spices-in-oil.
- Bhuna: frying the onion, aromatics and ground spices until the oil separates — the sign the raw taste is cooked out.
- Dry-roasting: seeds are toasted in a dry pan before grinding for many masalas. See toasting-spices.
- Late additions: garam masala, kasuri methi and chopped coriander often go in at the very end, because their aromas fade with cooking. See when-to-add-herbs-and-spices.
💡 Order matters
Mustard seed goes into the hot oil first and needs to pop; cumin follows and should darken only a shade. Curry leaves spit violently, so add them last and stand back. Ground spices burn in seconds in a hot pan, so lower the heat or add a splash of water with them.
Landmark dishes¶
Dal tadka, chana masala, rogan josh, biryani (with regional forms from Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata and Malabar), sambar and rasam, avial, macher jhol, dhokla, pav bhaji, vindaloo, and the street snacks sprinkled with chaat masala — whose sulphurous tang comes from kala namak (black salt) and amchur. Chutneys, especially green chutney of coriander, mint and chilli, sit on nearly every table.
Stocking the cupboard¶
Buy whole where possible and grind small batches; see whole-vs-ground-spices.
- Cumin seed and coriander seed
- Ground turmeric
- A mild red chilli powder such as Kashmiri, plus whole dried chillies
- Black mustard seed
- Green cardamom, cloves and cinnamon or cassia
- Garam masala (or make your own)
- asafoetida — a small tub lasts a year; keep it tightly sealed
- Kasuri methi, and fresh curry leaves if you cook southern dishes (they freeze well)
Indian grocers sell spices in larger bags at far lower prices than supermarket jars; decant them and store them away from light (see storing-spices).