Done right, turmeric an ingredient that can change the way you cook ethnic food. The aroma is intense: earthy, pungent, redolent of dried citrus peel and dusty streets soaked in sunlight. The flavor, though subtler, warms the tongue, the missing link between black pepper and chile. After tasting the real deal, one automatically understands why the food of over a billion people is stained with it. More

I have said the following a thousand times: Spices are what attract people to Indian food and also what scares them away. When you see a recipe with a list of 20 ingredients, you might flip the page and decide to make a simpler recipe. I would like to propose that if you buy five spices—along with ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes—you can make a decent Indian dish. Here are the five essential spices. More