The Indian spice Box--the tale behind it

Since we are talking about spices lets first talk about indian cuisine.

The cuisine of India is characterized by its use of various spices, herbs and other vegetables grown in India.Indian cuisine has had a remarkable influence on cuisines across the world, especially those from Southeast Asia.In particular, "curry", which originated in India, is used to flavor food across Asia.

The staples of Indian cuisine are rice, atta (whole wheat flour), and a variety of pulses.The most important/frequently used spices in Indian cuisine are chilli pepper, black mustard seed (rai), cumin (jeera), turmeric (haldi, manjal), fenugreek (methi), asafoetida (hing, perungayam), ginger (adrak, inji), coriander, and garlic (lassan, poondu). Popular spice mixes are garam masala which is usually a powder of five or more dried spices, commonly including cardamom, cinnamon, and clove.

North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products; milk, paneer, ghee (clarified butter), and yoghurt (yogurt, yoghourt) are all common ingredients. Gravies are typically dairy-based. Other common ingredients include chilies, saffron, and nuts.Most of the curries in northern india are eaten with a bread's like roti,phulka,naan,chaapathi etc.

Traditional cuisines of Eastern indian namely Orissa, Bengal, and Assam are delicately spiced. Their cuisine consists of Mustard paste, curd, nuts, poppy seed paste and cashew paste are preferably cooked in mustard oil.They curries are mostly eaten with rice or spiced rice.This region is more famous for the sweets such as rasagolla, chumchum, sandesh, rasabali, chhena poda, chhena gaja, chhena jalebi and kheeri.

South Indian cuisine is distinguished by a greater emphasis on rice as the staple grain, the ubiquity of sambar and rasam (also called chaaru and rasam), a variety of pickles, and the liberal use of coconut and particularly coconut oil and curry leaves.This region is more famous for the breakfast dishes like the dosa, poori, idli, vada, bonda,pongal etc.Another famous dish from the south is the "hyderabadi biryani".Not to forget the south indian filter coffee.

Western India has three major food groups: Gujarati, Maharashtrian and Goan.
For me maharashtra reminds me of the evening snacks like pani puri,bhel-puri,chaat,vada-pav,raagda etc Gujarati cuisine is predominantly vegetarian. Many Gujarati dishes have a hint of sweetness due to use of sugar or brown sugar. Goan cuisine is influenced by the Portuguese colonization of Goa.



This is the spice box that u find in most of the indian kitchen's.The other day all the ingredients in the spice box were over and so i again filled them up immediately...It was so pleasant to see all the beautiful vibrant colors..that i immediately thought of clicking a photo n here i am with it.The spice box is almost similar to the spice racks that we have out here in the US.

But for some reason i prefer useing the spice box itself(though its a personal opinion) might be i have more memories associated with things like the spice box,grinding mortor n pestle etc

I remember amma keeping all the grocery shopping money in it along with the spices..so that if any one passes by the house selling fresh vegetables or fish she doesnt need to run to the cupboard everytime.

So coming to the picture clockwise from top is

Methi
Chaana dal
Urad dal
Mustard
Corainder
Jeera
Red chillies( in the center)

These are the regular things that one uses for a Tadka or Poppu apart from the Hing,Curry leaves n Crushed Garlic.