Ayurveda and spices
In Indian cuisine, seasoning is done in 5 ways:
- First is the typical cooking, when we begin to pop the spices in ghee or oil. Then the spices are popped, we add the vegetables, etc. This works only for spice chunks, the powder spice will burn immediately. For example whole Roman cumin, whole mustard seed. When toasting, we do not add salt, because it starts to release moisture from the vegetables, so the food does not toast, but cooks. Due to the taste effect, toasting is the goal.
- Spice mass: In Indian cuisine, turmeric powder, cumin powder and ginger powder are mixed in water to form a dense mass. When the vegetables are well browned, this mass is added and they are kept on frying. The mass, because it’s a little wet, it’s going to stop the frying so the vegetables won’t burn. This mass will make the sauce for such dishes thick.
- The third seasoning is done when the water is already added to the dishes.
- The fourth seasoning before taking the food off the fire, e.g. the garam masala (half cinnamon-half cardamom)
- And the last one when we’ve taken it off the fire, we’ll throw something in it. For example, chopped coriander leaves before turning off the flame, put it on the lid and it is then removed from the heat. The coriander leaves will boil a little from the steam, neutralizing potentially too strong flavors if something was overdosed J.
For example, Roman cumin is popped out, then we add potatoes to toast, in which case the mass can be made from just turmeric and ginger powder. After toasting, fill it with water, the water contains laurel leaf salt and turmeric. In Hungarian cuisine, vegetables or meat/bone juice are used to thaw the food, and this is replaced by this combo with Indian dishes.
Source: Adam Baktai
