Spicy....Sunday Scribblings

This weeks' Sunday Scribblings is to write about Spicy.

Spicy has the following meanings: having the flavour, aroma, or quality of spice/ piquant, zesty/producing or abounding in spices/high-spirited, lively.

As soon as one says spicy, most of us get strong aroma of certain spices that we like. I get a smell of nutmeg and cloves!

Asian cooking is incomplete without the use of spices. Different places make use of different spices. In India, different spices are used in North and South India. These vary vastly. A few examples of spices used are basil, bay leaf, parsley, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, dill, fennel, mustard, nutmeg, cardamom, tamarind, cinnamon, curry leaves, pepper, garlic and ginger.

As I am an Indian, I love my food very pungent and spicy. Bland, boiled food is virtually unknown in this part of the world. Chillies, both red and green ones, are added to most vegetable preparations what most of you know as curry. Those curries taste great with plain boiled rice or chapatis/paranthas. Pickles are one item of food, which too contain many spices with oil and salt. No Indian meal is complete without pickles, which are made of raw mangoes or lemons or seasonal vegetables cut into small pieces.

Sometimes cloves, cardamoms, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg are added to tea. Those may be added and boiled with water before adding tealeaves. These are good for curing coughs and colds giving instant relief. All these/or any one can be boiled in water, sweetened to taste and sipped like tea. I relish nutmeg tea with sugar and milk. These spices do enhance the taste of tea along with curing common colds.

It does seem like a lesson on the eating habits in India. What I have mentioned here is just a drop in the ocean! Do check up India Spices.

Check out more spices....


*Delhi temperature touched 46 Degrees Celsius today. In a way, we are getting nicely pickled. Nothing can be more spicy than that!!