We all are familiar with this spice and infact it is a staple in Indian cuisine. Cumin seeds or jeera aids digestion and adds a nice fragrance to the food. In this blog we are going to talk specifically about roasted cumin seeds and the flavour they add to certain food and beverages.
To begin with, let us see how easily you can roast and store the cumin seeds. In a flat pan take cumin seeds and dry roast them on a medium to low flame.Once they start to splutter you can put it on low flame. Roast until they are brown (refer image). Once cooled down coarsely grind them, such that you have whole pieces and also powder. Store in an airtight container and ideally do not make more than 50-60 gm, it should remain fine for around 2 months depending on your usage. After that the aroma of cumin tends to reduce, hence make a small batch.
Roasting the jeera enhances the aroma of this wonderful spice and there is a burst of flavour in the select dishes it is added too. The crunch of the whole pieces of cumin taste wonderful in buttermilk and also in Indian chaat items like fruit chaat, dahi (curd based) chaat. Similarly, the combination ofpowdered form and whole pieces added in certain dishes adds the requisite dose of flavour. To know which recipes have roasted cumin, check out in our ebook ‘Homemade Delicacies’. Available on Amazon, can be viewed through the Kindle app.