Fenugreek (मेथी)

Fenugreek, Trigonella foenum-graecum, is grown and cooked across the subcontinent, and its seed, fresh leaf and dried leaf each have a place in the regional kitchens: in the Punjabi and Rajasthani kitchens as leaf and as kasuri methi, in Bengali cooking as one of the seeds of panch phoron, in Kashmiri cooking in the spice and vegetable repertoire, and in the South Indian kitchen as a seed in tempering, dosa and idli batters, and pickles. Ayurvedic tradition counts fenugreek among the bitter foods and serves it on the occasions that custom assigns it; the kitchen use rests on that long custom and on the plant's place in the household garden and spice box.

Fenugreek (मेथी, methi — Trigonella foenum-graecum) is used in three forms in the Indian kitchen: the small, angular amber seed, the fresh leaf, and the dried leaf sold as kasuri methi. Its bitterness is its defining quality and the reason it is handled with care. In the fresh leaf it is gentle and herbal, while the seed, used heavily or taken too far in the pan, turns harsh. The cook tempers that bitterness by roasting the seed lightly, by pairing it with yoghurt, cream or butter, and by setting it against sweetness such as jaggery or slowly browned onion.

Kasuri methi finishes butter chicken, dal makhani and paneer dishes, a tablespoon crumbled between the palms over the pan at the end of cooking. Its maple-like, faintly bitter fragrance cuts through the cream and butter of these dishes and adds a savoury depth that cooking time alone does not give. The seed is paired with sweetness and sourness in pickles and in tempered dals, where the jaggery or tamarind holds its bitterness in check.