mealtime stories
the secret is always spice
Almost every Tamil (and South Asian) household has its own ‘secret spice blend made from more or less the spices: cinnamon sticks, cardamom, cloves, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, curry leaves, and the list goes on. Of course, this varies in quantity and variety across households but the general concept is the same.
The fresh spices are first dry-roasted, then powdered, before being stored in any recycled glass bottles or jars one can find – yes, brown mums have been on the sustainability train since before our time.
The fresh spices are first dry-roasted, then powdered, before being stored in any recycled glass bottles or jars one can find – yes, brown mums have been on the sustainability train since before our time.
In our home, we have three main spice blends: chilli, biryani, and masala thool (or powder in English). The waft of aromas when amma would start the process of dry-roasting in our kitchen was so intense our eyes would start to burn – but its magical.
Some dry spices overlap across all three blends, but there are unique elements that give each one its own flavour – only chilli powder contains dried red chillies; biryani powder has a relatively larger proportion of coriander seeds; fennel seeds are the key component in masala powder.
The devil flavour is in the details.
The irony though, is that what we call a “secret recipe” is neither a secret nor a recipe. Amma doesn’t know what her amma did, my amma is not even sure what exactly she does. The trick is – there is no trick.
It’s not about measuring. It simply takes time to figure out a balance in flavours and textures, experimenting different quantities and ratios. After a while, amma got the hang of it. Now she just knows what to do.
Each time we ask amma for a recipe, she sends a different one. This is her latest response:
We wouldn’t take her word for it, but maybe you might?
P.S. She mentioned later on that we could also add 2 or 5 star anise… if we wanted to.