The Desi Pantry
Six items cover most of the cooking on this site. Stock these and you can cook nearly every recipe without a special shopping trip — each item below links to the recipes that use it most.
Garam masala
The warm finishing blend — cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black pepper, ground together. It goes in near the end of cooking, so its aroma survives to the table.
Recipes that use it: Butter Chicken Recipe: Creamy Murgh Makhani at Home, British Curry-House Beef Curry Recipe (Tender Chuck).
Ginger-garlic paste
Equal parts fresh ginger and garlic, blended smooth with a little water. It is the starting point of almost every curry here — fried first in oil, before anything else goes in.
Recipes that use it: Pakistani Chicken Curry Recipe: Dhaba-Style, No Coconut, Authentic Punjabi Lamb Curry Recipe (Tender Shoulder).
Biryani masala
The whole-spice blend that flavours a biryani — coriander, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and more, layered through rice and meat. Our own blend lives on the biryani masala hub.
Recipes that use it: Chicken Biryani Recipe — Hyderabadi Dum, Step by Step.
Karahi masala
The coriander-and-cumin-led blend that gives a karahi its flavour — black pepper and dried red chilli for heat, cardamom and cinnamon for warmth. Our own blend lives on the karahi masala hub.
Recipes that use it: No recipe in this first set of twenty names karahi masala as an ingredient — the curries here season with their own measured spices. The blend will be linked here when a recipe uses it.
Chaat masala
A tangy, salty-sour sprinkle — dried mango powder, black salt, cumin and chilli. It finishes snacks, salads and fruit, and gives pakora its lift.
Recipes that use it: Crispy Pakora Recipe: Pakistani Mixed Vegetable Fritters.
Basmati rice — how to cook it
Long-grain basmati, soaked for 20–30 minutes, rinsed until the water runs clear, then cooked until the grains are separate and fluffy. It is the base of every biryani on this site — and the full method is a recipe in its own right.
Dedicated pantry posts — one per spice and blend, with storage, buying and substitution notes — are future articles and will be linked from this hub as they publish. Until then, the rule for the whole pantry is simple: buy whole spices where you can and grind them as you need them, keep everything sealed and away from heat and light, and taste before adding more salt when a packet blend stands in for a homemade one, since packets are usually salted.