Entice With Spice. Shubhra Ramineni

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      Nutmeg (jaiphal) Nutmeg is the light brown seed of a fruit from an evergreen tree. It is best to buy it whole and grate it on the prickly side of a box grater or a Microplane when ready to use to get the maximum flavor. The unused portion should be kept in your pantry in an airtight bottle. You can also simply buy a small amount of pre-ground nutmeg, but do keep in mind that ground nutmeg soon loses its flavor. Nutmeg has a flavor that is similar but slightly different from cinnamon. I use nutmeg to flavor meats, but you could also sprinkle some on Indian Cappuccino (page 135) and see how you like that.

      Oil (vanaspati tail) Oil is an important part of cooking Indian food because it allows food to delicately brown and also adds fat which, of course, means adding flavor! Oil also prevents food from sticking to the bottom of cookware, especially if you are not using nonstick cookware. I usually cook Indian food with either vegetable oil or canola oil, which is a specific type of vegetable oil that is expressed from the seeds of the rapeseed plant. For simplicity, I call for vegetable oil in the recipes throughout this book but you can certainly use canola oil instead, which is healthier, although a bit pricier. Vegetable oil is a category of cooking oil made from plant sources, such as vegetable, nuts or seeds. When I buy vegetable oil, I buy the bottle that says “vegetable oil,” which may be soybean, corn or other vegetable-derived oils that are mixed together. Olive oil, a type of vegetable oil, is not traditionally used to cook Indian food but now some are starting to use it for health reasons. Once opened, store oil tightly closed in a cabinet for up to six months.

      Paneer is a fresh homemade cheese that is unripened—meaning it has not been aged. It is a mild, versatile cheese that does not melt when heated due to its chemical structure and can be used to make appetizers, main dishes and a variety of Indian desserts. This cheese is simply made by separating boiling milk into curds (solid clumps) and whey (watery liquid) by using an acidic agent such as lime juice or yogurt. The whey is then drained by passing it through a cheesecloth, leaving the moist, soft and crumbly curds, which is the Indian cheese, paneer. Depending on what you want to make with the paneer, it can be used as is in its soft, crumbled form or it may be shaped into a square and pressed under a heavy weight so the remaining whey is pressed out, leaving a firm cheese block that can be cut into pieces and fried or sautéed. I always prefer to use whole milk instead of reduced fat milk when making paneer so that I can get the maximum yield of paneer that is rich and creamy with a beautiful texture. Paneer is usually made from cow or buffalo milk and should be used immediately. It can be kept in the refrigerator for only one day so it does not dry out. Paneer blocks and fried paneer cubes can be found in the refrigerated and frozen sections of Indian grocery stores. But because fresh paneer is so easy to make, I prefer to make it at home.