My husband really enjoys Bengali cuisine a lot. His mom is an expert but somehow I never really had much interest in learning that cuisine. While in an Indian grocery store, I saw a ready-made packet of Panch Phoran on the shelf. I was curious and bought it. I thought one was supposed to eat it after a meal to aid in digestion as I found this packet on the same shelf as Mukhwaas (mouth freshner) and Hajmola (digestive aid). After my meal I tried to eat a teaspoon of it. Horror of horrors, I was very upset with whatever happened in my mouth! I went through a ten minute adventure after which I recovered but was maimed for life. After the incident, I let the packet sit in the shelf for a few days, then with no idea as to what to do with it, I discarded it. That was the end of Panch Phoran for me.

When I opened Hari Nayak’s Book My Indian Kitchen, I saw the recipe of this very powder that had given me a nightmare a couple of years back. Who could ever forget such a taste? Out of curiosity I decided to make some powder and see if I liked it. Boy was I happy! I was extremely delighted to have discovered this lovely spice mix and keep it ready in my kitchen. I now use it very frequently with a lot of dishes; it’s versatile and tastes divine. If I had only known this a couple of years back!! I made Hari’s Bengali Potatoes and we loved it very much. I have blogged about it here.

Panch means Five. Phoran means Spice. This is a five spice blend. In Bengali cooking, Panch Phoran is tempered in hot oil to flavor it and this tempering is added to dals or vegetables. The panch phoran spices are dry roasted briefly and ground coarsely and then used in making pickles, chutneys, simple vegetable and chicken dishes. Hari Nayak recommends the powdered version for several of his recipes in his book “My Indian Kitchen.”

Panch Phoran recipe from Hari Nayak’s “My Indian Kitchen.”

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Makes about 1 cup (125 g)

• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon nigella seeds or celery seeds

If you plan to use this spice mixture in its ground form, dry roast the whole spices over medium heat in a small, nonstick skillet, stirring often, until fragrant, 1 to 1½ minutes. Remove the spices from the skillet and set aside to cool completely. Finely or coarsely grind the whole spices in an electric coffee grinder and store in an airtight jar. Note: Some recipe call for a coarsely ground blend. Remember to check the recipe you’re planning to make to see if this is the case before grinding the spices.

Methi or Fenugreek tends to get a little bitter. So use ½ tablespoon instead of a full tablespoon. Experiment with a full tablespoon and see how you like it. I made the spice mixture exactly as described above and the taste was wonderful. There was absolutely no bitterness at all.