By Gauri Thergaonkar, Contributing Editor
From the Queen of Sheba’s historic visit to King Solomon to the many European conquests of the East, spices have ignited passions and changed the course of history since time immemorial. Their role in our society has transformed many times over the centuries. Once precious commodities accessible only to the very wealthy, spices were used to end sieges, buy brides, pay rent, ensure safe passage and as a trading currency.
Today, corner grocery stores have spice selections numbering in the hundreds, peppercorns grace every restaurant table and home pantry, and cinnamon shakers are ubiquitous in coffee shops—and this more-adventuresome spirit is carrying over into manufactured foods.
Broadening with blends
If we hold that observation to be true of spices in general, it is especially true of spice blends. The conjuring up of a spice blend requires a certain comfort with spices and a certain degree of flair, skills which remain the stronghold of the Eastern cultures where the most common spices of the world find their origins.
Of the tried-and-true spice blends of the East, some are better known than others—five spice powder from China is better known than seven spice powder from Japan. Za’atar from the Middle East is gaining popularity while advieh remains obscure; garam masala from India is practically a household word, but sambhar powder is known only to the most-avid enthusiasts of Indian food.
A quick survey of the culinary landscape would indicate a rapidly growing interest in the spice blends of India. An educated guess might place the reason for this interest as stemming from the fact that of all the Eastern cultures, Indian spice blends tend to be comprised of 10 or more spices, whereas those of the Middle and Far East tend to be more restrained and employ 4 to 5 spices, leading the Indian spice blends to be an alluring combination of complexity and inaccessibility.
While a blend of 10 or more spices in specific quantities, each toasted individually and then powdered, may seem daunting, it is important to understand that they came out of kitchens that routinely contained at least 25 spices as part of the pantry. They were wielded by cooks who had an intimate familiarity with spices, having grown up in kitchens and households where spices have been expertly used for generations, centuries, eons.
Inside the Indian kitchen
A quick, if reductionist, overview of Indian cooking is required to understand the nature of spice blends. In the first step, oil is heated, seasoned with whole spices, typically including mustard and cumin, and then the main ingredient—vegetable, meat or poultry—is added to the seasoned oil. This step is called the tarka or the bhuna. Spice blends usually go in toward the end, when the main ingredient is almost cooked and then the entire dish is cooked through so that the spices become one with the main ingredient.
It is because they go in at the end that most of the ingredients in spice blends are dry roasted in a pan before they are ground. Besides “waking up” the flavors of the spices themselves, the heat also removes the raw edge on the spices, allowing them to be quickly integrated with the main ingredient and preserving a bright, fresh flavor that would be lost from too much exposure to heat or liquid.
Even today, in an average Indian kitchen, when a spice blend is being prepared, nothing is measured. Traditionally, spice blends were made on the fly, the quick roasting and grinding being as common a step in the preparation of a meal as the peeling of garlic or the chopping of onions.
Typically, each spice is individually dry roasted on medium to medium-high heat. This is because the time-temperature balance needed for each spice varies. The hardier ones, like peppercorns, need more heat, so they should be roasted for longer than most others. Cumin seeds are similarly sturdy and can withstand high temperatures, but their shape and size renders them a little more fragile and quicker to burn. Cloves and cardamom seeds are much like cumin seeds—sturdy to higher temperatures but requiring attention.
In general, the size of a spice is a good way to judge how much exposure to heat it needs to heighten its flavors. The best way to determine whether a spice is sufficiently roasted is by staying alert and attentive to its aroma, which will be quite distinct. As a rule of thumb, preheat the roasting pan to medium before you add the spice. A minute or so of roasting is sufficient for most spices.
Regional preferences, availability of a given spice, the main ingredient and the seasons defined the contents of each spice blend. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that in a typical kitchen no two spice blends were ever exactly the same and that even when the main constituents of a spice blend were the same between two cooks, an unquantifiable aesthetic, the so called “cooks hand,” would make the quantities used by each slightly different.