Necessary Bengali Spices

বাঙালী মশলা পাতির খুঁটি-নাটি 

Here’s a list of Quintessential spices that must be present in any Bong cooks spice cabinet.

Cumin – Jeera

Common chonk/phoron for many North Indian recipes.

Nigella/ Onion seeds – Kalo Jeera/ Kalaunji

Perfect to cook many simple Bengali recipes. E.g. I use it for my jhinge posto, macher jhols. Phoron nigella with chopped green chili for that unmistakeable Bong aroma J

Poppy seeds – Posto

Fenugreek – Methi

Coriander seeds – Dhania / dhone

Mustard seeds – Shorshe

Fennel seeds – mouri

Add mouri bata aada bata (fennel seeds paste and ginger paste) to boiled split urad dal and you have the authentic KALAI dal J

Dried red chili – Shukno lonka (gota)

Turmeric powder – holud/haldi

Asafoetida – hing

Dhone-jeere gunro – Dry ground cumin and coriander seeds

Adds texture to simple jhol preparations.

e.g. dhone jeere guro, aada bata (ginger paste) can make any watery macher jhol taste and feel sumptuous.

Bay leaf – Tej pata

Cardamom (green and black) – choto and boro elach

For your garam masala cuisine or for the essential Bengali payesh

Black pepper - Gol Morich

That should be enough to get you through any Bong recipe. A few blends, e.g. Garam masala, bhaja masala, etc. may be chalked out of the above too…you’ll find many such spice blend recipes in this blog (under label: “bengali spice mix”)

Note: Spices MUST be stored separately in air tight containers. No tying up with rubber bands and no storing all spices together in fancy spice chambers. The aroma is the essence of any Indian spice…. :)