Indian Cuisine

What is Indian home cooking?

Indian home cooking is one of the most misunderstood cuisines in the world. It is not exclusively spicy. It is not all curry.

It is an enormously diverse cuisine spanning 28 states, each with distinct ingredients, techniques, and flavour profiles — Punjabi cooking uses dairy and wheat, South Indian cooking uses coconut and rice, Bengali cooking uses mustard oil and fish, Gujarati cooking is largely vegetarian and slightly sweet.

What unifies Indian home cooking across regions is the use of whole and ground spices layered at multiple stages of cooking, the tadka technique of blooming spices in hot fat, and the building of masala — a spice base of onion, tomato, ginger, and garlic that forms the foundation of most North Indian dishes.

What are the essential Indian cooking techniques?

Tadka (tempering spices): Tadka is the technique of frying whole spices — mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dried chilies, curry leaves — in hot oil or ghee until they bloom and release their essential oils. The spiced fat is then either used as the base for cooking or poured over a finished dish as a flavour finish. This is the most important technique in Indian cooking. Fat-soluble flavour compounds in spices require heat and fat to activate — tadka extracts those compounds fully. The same principle applies to Koray's blooming technique in Korean cooking — heat activates, fat carries.

Building masala: North Indian cooking is built on a masala base — onions cooked until deeply golden (20 to 25 minutes minimum, not 5), then ginger and garlic paste added and cooked until raw smell disappears (3 to 4 minutes), then tomatoes cooked until oil separates from the mixture. This sequence cannot be rushed. Each stage must complete before the next begins. The separated oil is the signal that the masala is ready for spices.

Cooking dal: Dal is cooked in two stages — the lentils are simmered until completely soft and breaking down, then a tadka of ghee, cumin, garlic, dried chilies, and sometimes tomato is prepared separately and poured over the cooked dal. The sizzle when hot tadka hits the dal is the defining moment of the dish. Stir immediately to incorporate.

Marinating for tandoori: Tandoori technique uses a two-stage marinade — first a salt and lemon juice rub to tenderise, then a yogurt and spice marinade for a minimum of 4 hours and ideally overnight. The yogurt tenderises the protein further and creates the characteristic charred, slightly tangy crust when cooked at high heat.

What do you need in an Indian pantry?

• Cumin seeds and ground cumin — used whole in tadka and ground in masala.
• Coriander seeds and ground coriander — earthy and citrusy.
• Turmeric — used in almost every savoury Indian dish for colour and earthy flavour.
• Garam masala — a blend of warming spices added at the end of cooking.
• Mustard seeds — used in tadka, especially in South Indian cooking.
• Curry leaves — fresh or frozen only. Essential for South Indian dishes.
• Dried red chilies — used whole in tadka for heat and colour.
• Kashmiri chili powder — mild, deeply red, used primarily for colour.
• Ghee — clarified butter. Adds a rich, nutty flavour.
• Ginger and garlic paste — used in almost every North Indian masala base.
• Yogurt — used in marinades, curries, and raita. Always use full-fat.
• Coconut milk — used in South Indian curries and Kerala dishes.