If you’ve made curry in the past, you’re probably familiar with the idea of toasting your spices. Indian curry will often ask you to toast your spices in oil before adding other ingredients, while Thai curry calls for allowing the curry paste to toast in the pan for several minutes to achieve maximum flavor. In Western cooking we often don’t learn this step, and so we’re not always getting the most out of our spices. Here’s why you should bring this technique to all your cooking.
Activating the Aroma
Chefs explain that the aromatic nature of most spices comes from oils within them, and it’s heat that really activates those oils. This means that toasting your spices will help intensify their flavor, making for a more powerful dish and allowing fewer spices to provide a lot more taste. Most spices are toasted before being ground and sold, but toasting them again in the pan is what reawakens them.
Whole Spices
When dealing with whole spices, you can simply place them in a pan to toast up. Be sure to keep a close watch and to stir them often to be sure the sides are evenly browned. Once they are brown and smell toasty, remove them. Don’t leave them too long or they’ll burn.
Ground Spices
With ground spices, the process is much quicker. Ground spices burn a lot faster, so you usually want to add them to the oil when you’re already cooking and give them a 30-second toast before adding some liquid to stop them from burning.
