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How to Cook Indian Food – North India

By Sid Khullar • May 9th, 2009 • Category: Columns

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You’ve probably read the previous piece on North Indian breads. This article focuses on North Indian cooking, which includes cooking style, spices used, terminology and some common foods.

North Indian cooking is nearly always quite spicy and uses a large number of spices in any given dish. The terms used for various dishes are normally descriptive of the food itself like Jeera Aloo for instance, which literally translates to ‘Cumin seed Potatoes’. Like most cultures there are also some misleading names like ‘Butter Chicken’, which is actually marinated chicken cooked in a tandoor and served in smooth, tomato gravy and doesn’t contain any butter. There are also terms which aren’t related to the food in question, like Pulao, which is rice cooked with spices and vegetables. The term sabzi (sub-zee) is used quite liberally when describing nearly any dry, vegetable preparation. The same applies to the term dal, which is used for most types of lentils. The term tari (tuh-ree) denotes gravy and is suffixed to the name of a dish when it has gravy.

In these days of fusion food, it is difficult to pin down a set of spices that a given region can claim. However, traditionally, north Indian cooking uses the following spices and herbs:

Cumin seed (Jeera)
Ajowan or (Ajwain)
Red Chili Powder I – Flavor over color (Lal Mirch)
Red Chili Powder II – Color over flavor (Degi Mirch or Kashmiri Mirch)
Turmeric Powder (Haldi)
Dried Mango Powder (Aamchur)
Coriander Seeds (Sabat Dhania)
Coriander Powder (Dhania)
Fresh Coriander Leaves (Hara Dhania)
Green Cardamom (Choti Elaichi)
Black Cardamom (Badi Elaichi)
Cinnamon (Dalchini)
Garam Masala – A set mixture of spices – roasted cumin, cinnamon, cloves, caraway seeds, nutmeg (and/or mace) and green cardamom seed or black cardamom pods. The composition of Garam Masala changes from region to region.
Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Kasuri Methi)
Black Mustard Seeds (Rai)

This list is by no means complete – there are many more spices used in every day North Indian cooking – the purpose of this article however is to provide a feel for North Indian cooking.

Different spices are used in different situations, in different ways. The flavor and characteristics of spices change if you’re dry roasting them, frying them, adding them before simmering to cook or after cooking.

Next: Two Simple North Indian Recipes

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Tagged as: Aamchur, Ajwain, aloo, Badi Elaichi, Banana, Black Pepper, Boil, breakfast, Cardamom, Chicken, chicken recipe, Choti Elaichi, Cinnamon, Cloves, Coriander Seed, cream, creamy, Cumin Seed, curry, Dalchini, Deep Fry, Dhania, Fennel, fish, Fry, Garam Masala, garlic, Ginger, Gravy, Haldi, Hot, Jeera, Lemon, Lentils, Mango, Mari, Matar, meat, Mustard Seed, Namak, Nutmeg, Onion, Pepper, potato, potatoes, Pyaaz, roast, Sabzi, Salt, sauce, Simmer, Spices, spicy, tomato

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Chef At Large: Curry recipes, Spicy food, Indian food blog

Sid Khullar is a self confessed food addict who likes cooking, writing and photography... and travel, if it gets him closer to a good book and interesting food.
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16 Responses »

Toni-anne on May 9th, 2009 at 9:27 am:
Wow, what an amazing amount of information, thank you for posting it. I shall read it again when I’m not hungry.
nina on May 9th, 2009 at 9:28 am:
Hi Sid, thank you for inviting me into your world. I think your recipes will take away my fear of cooking Indian food!!!
Sid on May 9th, 2009 at 10:46 am:
@Toni: Please try something and let me know how it turns out.
@Nina: … I *love* your Bacon-Brie- Date-and-Rocket-Pizza and am determined to make it at home!
TikiPundit on May 9th, 2009 at 12:14 pm:
This is really a great post. Lots of information in a small space. Thanks for writing it all out.
Toni Anne on May 9th, 2009 at 5:36 pm:
When I’ve read it properly and my back allows me to stand up, I shall!

Mely on May 9th, 2009 at 5:53 pm:

Hi Sid,

Great information, I live in a community where almost 1/3 of the population is from India. There are i indian markets very closed by. Last summer I took Indian cooking classes and was surprise to se some techniques very similar to our Mexican cuisine. I think this is more information that the one I got at those cooking classes. And that potato dish is great.

Thanks for inviting me over to you facebook community.

Sid on May 9th, 2009 at 6:43 pm:
@Mely: Neat! Glad you like the article.
Shreya on May 10th, 2009 at 6:30 am:
Hi Sid, being a South Indian, I really enjoyed this article. Very information, I did not know so many things, like Kewda water for instance! Thank you for posting this:-)
Sid on May 10th, 2009 at 6:33 am:
@Shreya: Thanks. The article has a definite slant towards Indian Muslim cooking methods btw, and may not reflect only North Indian cooking methods.
Christelle on May 11th, 2009 at 11:55 pm:
Very informative, apreciated!

Mal on May 15th, 2009 at 1:38 pm:

One of the best food blogs I’ve ever seen. Sid, you really have it going on here. You just need your own segment on the Food Channel now or at least a few videos putting together a dish or two. Thanks for doing this and good luck moving forward.. Cheers -

Sid on May 15th, 2009 at 5:01 pm:
@Mal: Thank you for your kind comments! You’ve made my day.
How to Cook Indian Food - North India | Chef at Large - Indian … « Indian Food blog on May 24th, 2009 at 5:50 pm:
[...] Originally posted here: How to Cook Indian Food – North India | Chef at Large – Indian … [...]
Pari on June 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 am:
Good piece of information…especially for beginners.

Naheed on August 28th, 2009 at 5:27 am:

There are various versions of Nehari. The one served at Karim (old delhi) tastes different from the one served in the Bylanes of Zakir nagar. The latter is quite fiery and one can actually smell the flavour of red chilly powder!. Have had it once at a neighbour’s place and the memory lingers! Ashish’s version is more elaborate and my version was simpler and less spicy. The version cooked at our home has a lot of gravy and it is served in a bowl sprinkled with chopped green chillies ( depending on your taste), ginger bits and a lot of fresh lemon juice.

Severinam on August 28th, 2009 at 3:18 pm:
Ok. I have read your note and I really would like to eat that!!! I’m going to read the note again and cook something. I hope it would be delicious. Thank you very much!