Anjala Potti

I was watching Discovery's Travel & Living today and caught an interesting cookery show about South Indian cuisine. Well, details of the show aside, i was interested in the host's paragraph about 'Anjala Potti'. Well, for those of you who are absolutely clueless about this(Initially, i was), its actually a term in Tamil used to describe the Indian spice box.

Well, i've seen the spice box in so many houses that yes, agreeing to the host, no indian kitchen is complete without it. Spice is essential in Indian cooking and the silverware that hold the 7 most important spices couldn't be less important.

Well, i'm going to call it Anjala Potti from now on because i find the term so cute and ethnic :). To start off, an Anjala Potti is a concentric silverware that holds 7 small round silver containers in it. And in these 7 containers that we fill our spices in. Plus it comes with 7 small covers to seal the smaller containers and a big cover to seal the whole potti. Thus once sealed , it can be kept anywhere or taken anywhere. Plus the stainless steel containers enables the preservation of the freshness of the spices.

What are the 7 spices that Indians filled their Anjala Pottis with?

--> Cumin Seeds - usually an essential spice for making the famous Indian curry-sup called 'rasam' but its also great in other non-veg and veg dishes. My favourite product when i'm cooking an Indian style chicken dish.

--> Turmeric - This powdered spice is bright and beautiful, but stains unmercifully. In fact, it's commonly used as a natural dye. It imparts a nice shade of yellow to dishes and has a very mild, earthy flavor.

--> Mustard seeds- A little seed that comes from the mustard plant. Buy the brown variety rather than the yellow. Mustard seeds add a pungent flavor and can be bitter in large quantities.

--> Whole Garam Masala - a concoction of spices, all dry blended together. Used in almost any anything, mainly vegetarian dishes to bring in the flavour.

--> Chili- Powdered powder made from dried and ground cayenne peppers. This is hot, hot, hot. Especially varieties Indian grocery stores.

--> Fennel seeds - another favourite in vegetarian curries. Also taken when u have a bout of indigestion.

--> Coriander powder- this seed comes from the cilantro plant. It is available in both whole and ground varieties. Ground coriander adds a mild, earthy and savory flavor to Indian food. It's used in quantity to add richness and substance to gravy in wet dishes. Use this in just about everything. It's not spicy at all, just flavorful.

Of course other than the 7 spices mentioned above, we can't do without many other spices like lentils, ground pepper and so on. And to further enhance the availability of many other spices essential for Indian cooking, an Anjala Potti is now available in variable numbers of compartments, ranging from 10 to 30.

No Indian cooking is complete without these spices and no Indian gal should avoid the use of an Anjala Potti. Its a very minute part of the culture and i like the concept of it. I'm getting my potti soon!!