Poppy seeds, from the seed of the opium poppy. They are improved by roasting and are used for thickening curries instead of cornflours or other starches.
Dried whole milk. It is made by cooking the milk very slowly until the water evaporates off and it becomes pasty in consistency. It is used as the basis of many sweets.
A mixture of five spices used commonly in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa in western India. Every household will have its own preferred recipe. Garam masala is more common to northern India, as the "hot spices" are preferred to chillis in the cold winters. In southern Indian vegetarian cooking, the equivalent is sambhar powder and in western India, goda masala and kholombo powder. In Punjab, tandoori masala is the most common, and in Bengal panch phoron which gives the food of this area its unique flavour.
Poppy seeds, from the seed of the opium poppy. They are improved by roasting and are used for thickening curries instead of cornflours or other starches.
Galangal. The rhizome of a plant of the ginger family, although it is smaller and more shrivelled. It has more translucent, flesh-coloured skin than the rhizome of ginger. It is peeled and grated or thinly sliced and used in the same way that fresh ginger is used, but has a slightly more complex flavour reminiscent of camphor. Greater galangal resembles a cross between ginger and pepper; lesser galangal is more pungent, with cardamom and eucalyptus flavours, whilst kempferia is the strongest.
