Dried fennel seeds (saunf or soonf) are oval, about 5 to 10 mm long and 2 mm wide, either straight or slightly curved, often with little tails attached (stem).

When fresh they are yellow-brown to green with lighter coloured stripes (similar to miniature water melons). They turn a dull grey as the seed ages.

Dried fennel seed is highly aromatic and emits a warm anise aroma (anethole), similar to star-anise. The taste is similar to liquorice. In Asia it is common to chew fennel seed as a mouth-freshener.

Fennel seed is available in powder form called Valiary Powder. The powder should not be roasted or fried as it has a delicate flavour easily ruined at high temperatures.
 
The seed is an essential ingredient in the Bengali Five Spice mixture panch phoron and used in Chinese five-spice powder. It is also used in many curry powders.

In many parts of India roasted fennel seeds are consumed as an after-meal digestive. It is also believed to help cure stomach complaints and toothache. Asian herbalists use the seeds in medicines for shortness of breath and wheezing. Some claim fennel has aphrodisiac qualities. Fennel oil is used in cough medicine, liquorice sweets, perfumes and soaps.

Originally an indigenous plant of the Mediterranean region, fennel is now cultivated for export in Germany, France, Russia, Middle East and India.

Panch Phoron or Bengali Five Spice, a combination of five spices, is used to flavour pulses and vegetable dishes. It may be put into hot oil to flavour the oil before other ingredients are added, or it is used to flavour ghee that is then stirred into cooked dhal or poured over vegetable dishes just before being served.

To make Panch Phoron

1 tbsp white cumin seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp nigella seeds
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds

Ajwain (ajowan) or Carom seeds look like a smaller version of cumin seeds.

On commercial packaging, Ajwain Seeds are commonly branded (incorrectly) as 'Lovage Seeds' which can be misleading. Because of this, some Indian recipes also refer to Ajwain as Lovage.

Ajwain seeds taste totally different to Lovage. In cookery they are not a substitute to each other.

Ajwain seeds are highly fragrant and smell and taste like thyme (thymol) or caraway but more bitter and pungent. Even a small amount of raw ajwain will completely dominate the flavour of a dish. Note that real lovage has a celery taste and is often sold as 'celery seed'.

Ajwain is mostly sold in seed form and is rarely used in powder form for Indian cookery. It is used in small quantities and almost always used either dry-roasted or after frying in oil.

When cooked, their flavour is mellowed similar to that of thyme or oregano, yet stronger with a zesty touch.

In India, ajwain is popular for its use in breads (paratha), savoury pastries (pakora), fried snacks (including Bombay mix), and an enhancement to spice mixes (it is often used to enhance the Panch Poran - the Indian five-spice mixture).

Ajwain is also used in vegetable dishes (for its distinctive taste) and pickles (for its preservative qualities).

India is the main supplier of Ajwain, but it is also grown in Afganistan, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt.

It is used to control flatulence and indigestion and prescribed for colic, diarrhoea and other bowel disorders and in the treatment of asthma. The essential oil is an important antiseptic and used, among other things, in mouthwashes and toothpastes.

I was talking with Latif at my takeaway yesterday. I asked him what he thought were the major changes in BIR cooking techniques since the 70's. He identified two main points.

1) The chicken and lamb used in BIR's in the 70's were generally low grade meat. The meat was tenderised first by prolonged boiling (with other ingredients?). Floating, congealed, saturated fat was removed from the stock. The remainder was then used instead of water in the base gravy - albeit very unhealthy, this added a particular flavour.

2) The base was made with copious amounts of veg oil which was then recovered as 'spiced oil' which was then used neat (or diluted with some fresh) to cook the curries. Apparently, some but not many, BIR's still use this oil recovery method. He does not.

These methods gave the majority of curries a 'common' base flavour.

Could this be the answer to the missing 5% 

SnS

I have a number of new (boxed) stainless steel Brinkmann Smokers for sale ;D ;D.

These would normally retail at 199.99

see here http://www.thebbq.co.uk/item/smoke___q__n__q___grill_stainless_steel/

If anyone would like to buy one of these at a special members price of 85.00 + 15.00 delivery (UK mainland only), please mail me.

For each smoker purchased through the forum, I will donate 5.00 to Admin's forum fund.

If you haven't tried this new healthy method of cooking, I can highly recommend it (smoked chicken is bootiful).

I also have a number of large 1/4 inch steel Brinkmann smokers for sale. As they are very heavy this would be on collection basis only.

SnS  ;D