Indian Cooking Ingredients

Indian food requires a variety of exotic ingredients that many people might not be familiar with. Even more confusingly, some ingredients that most of us use every day in western cooking can be used differently.

For example, did you know that for a curry you should fry the onions for at least thirty minutes, until all the water has come out of them and they’re golden brown? For some dishes you may even need to burn the onions to achieve the right flavour.

This section is like a combined glossary and best practice guide. For each item I give a detailed description of what the ingredient actually is, and give examples of how it’s used in traditional Indian cooking. You’ll find this really useful when cooking dishes that contain new ingredients you’ve never cooked with before.

I’ll also give you some tips on the best places to find these ingredients, as many can be quite hard to find, depending on where you live.