Spices add flavor, color, fragrance, and variety to foods while also representing cultural traditions. The document discusses several common Indian spices, including red chili powder, turmeric, black pepper, cumin, fennel, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, garlic, saffron, star anise, cardamom, coriander, and curry leaves. Many of these spices are used daily in Indian cooking and also have traditional medicinal purposes such as aiding digestion, reducing inflammation, and treating coughs, colds, and diabetes.

1. SPICY RIDDLES
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
CLASS-IV

2. What do spices give us? yes Spices, like everything else, they are
made of chemicals. Spices give us health, colour and fragrance and
most of all they keep life from getting monotonous. Spices hide in
them our traditions and culture.

3. let’s study about some spices which we uses in our daily kitchen.
I can be powdered fine

5. Red Chili Powder is also known as lal mirch powder. This is one of
the most powerful hot spice which can easily affect the ears, tongue
and stomach. Indian food or Indian recipes are greatly influenced
with this chili powder. You can easily get red chili powder in the
grocery stores.

6. Chilli powder is the base for making any flavored, hot and spicy food.
The Chilli powder is greatly used for various types of veg and non-
veg food materials. It is highly incorporated in various salads and
tomato based sauces. The ethnic dishes are mostly imparted with the
flavor and heat blend of the chilli powder.

7. Turmeric powder is a bright yellow spice powder made from
dried turmeric rhizomes. Turmeric or haldi is one ingredient in your
kitchen that holds a remedy for almost all illness you are likely to
encounter.

8. A staple spice in almost all Indian households. t has been used
by Ayurveda and Unani practitioners in India from time
immemorial. Turmeric is an indispensable spice, which imparts a
musky flavour and yellow colour to curries.

9. Almost all Indian vegetable dishes use turmeric either separately or
as part of the masala (spice mixture). It is also used in recipes
comprising rice, lentils and dry beans. A small pinch
of turmeric powder would is enough to add a pleasant orange-yellow
hue to salad dressings.

10. pepper-kali mirch
Black pepper comes from the pepper plant, a smooth woody vine that can
grow up to 33 feet in hot and humid tropical climates. They begin to bear
small white clustered flowers after 3 to 4 years and develop into berries
known as peppercorns. Ground peppercorns produce the spice we call
pepper.

11. Black pepper stimulates the taste buds in such a way that an alert is sent to
the stomach to increase hydrochloric acid secretion, thereby improving
digestion. Hence, adding a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper to your foods
not only adds to the flavour but improves digestion as well.

12. It is also an excellent source of manganese, a very good source of iron and
vitamin K, and a good source of dietary fibre.

13. Cumin seeds are also known as jeera, zeera, Seagram or cumin.
Cumin are oblong shaped, pale or usually dark brown seeds in color. Indian
recipes are greatly flavoured with these cumin seeds.

14. Cumin seeds is the form of aromatic spice with the bitter taste and very warm
flavour. Cumin seeds can be used as whole, crushed or grounded .The Salads
and various vegetarian recipes can be flavoured with the tempering cumin
seeds.

15. Cumin seeds are highly used as whole, fried, toasted, roasted or powdered.
You can make delicious jeera rice by tempering few cumin seeds in the
butter.

16. Fennel seeds it has been traditionally used as an aid to digestion and it has
many health benefits.

17. Fennel Seeds are very effective for digestive problems. In India, these are
routinely chewed upon after meals to aid in digestion after a rich meal while
acting as a herbal mouth freshener.

18. Fennel tea is a mild diuretic and can help flush excess water and toxins out
of the body. Drinking this herbal tea can help ease a sore throat, reduce a
fever and loosen phlegm from your respiratory system.

19. Cloves is derived from the Latin word ‘nail ‘means calves . Cloves are
normally 12-16 mm long just like nails with a tapered stem. Cloves is a
flower bud of huge tropical tree.

20. It is pink in color when is fresh and after dried it turns into rust brown
color. Cloves can be used as whole, crushed or powdered one.

21. Cloves can be roasted and then crushed to make a fine powder with the help
of grinder and can be highly used for making various types of stews, soups
and marinades. Cloves is a basic part of whole garam masala, which is one of
the most important reason to bring the flavor and aroma in several rice
recipes, pulaos and biryanis.

22. Bay leaf (Tez Patta)
It is used in cooking to add a specific flavour to food. It also has some
medicinal properties. . Fresh or dried bay leaves are used in cooking for
their distinctive flavor and fragrance. The leaves are not meant to be eaten,
although it is safe to do so.

23. Cinnamon (Dalchini)
Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree. Cinnamon is
harvested as strips of bark rolled one inside another color. It is used for
mainly for seasoning food and preparing masalas. It has medicinal uses
too. This can be prepared by roasting whole cinnamon and then crushing it
into fine powder.

24. Nutmeg
The hard brown seed from the nutmeg tree has a warm, spicy sweet flavor. It
is used in powdered form for garnishing and also for masala preparation. It is
also used in soaps, perfumes & shampoos. It can also be used for medicinal
purpose. It is beneficial for the treatments of asthma, heart disorder and bad
breath

25. Ginger
Ginger is the underground rhizome of the ginger plant with a firm, striated
texture. The flesh of the ginger rhizome can be yellow, white or red in color,
depending upon the variety. It is covered with a brownish skin that may either
be thick or thin.

26. Garlic
Garlic is a wonderful seasoning to add aroma, taste, and added nutrition to
your dishes. We often recommend using raw chopped or pressed garlic in many
of our dishes to take advantage of the benefits gets from garlic. It is used
for cooking as well as for the medicinal purpose. It is useful for coping
with cough and cold. It also has antibiotic properties.

27. Saffron
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known
as the "saffron crocus". Saffron crocus grows to 20–30 cm and bears up to four
flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are the distal end of a
carpel.

28. It is used for cooking as well as in beauty products. It is mainly used in sweet
dishes. It has good medicinal properties. It helps to cope with skin diseases. It
is a good remedy for cough, cold and asthma.

29. Star Anise
Star anise is the unusual fruit of a small oriental tree. It is, as the name
suggests, star shaped, radiating between five and ten pointed boat-shaped
sections, about eight on average. It is used in cooking and for medicinal
purpose Star anise oil is helpful for digestion and avoiding bad breath.

30. Cardamom Elaichi
Elaichi or cardamom is one of the most common spices seen in an Indian
household. It is used in most of the Indian and other sweet dishes to give a
good flavour and smell. It is also used widely in pharmaceutical sector. It
Helps to control bad breath and digestive disorder. A whole cardamom
chewed is good for coping with diabetes.

31. Coriander- Dhaniya
Coriandum sativum or coriander, also known as Chinese parsley, dhania, or
cilantro, is grown extensively in southern Europe, northern Africa, and Asia.

32. Coriander leaves as well as coriander seeds are used in cooking. It also has
some medicinal uses. It can be used externally on aching joints and
rheumatism. It is also good for coping with soar throat, allergies, digestion
problems, hay fever etc.

33. Curry leaves
Its leaves are used in many dishes in India and neighboring countries. It is used
as a main ingredient for seasoning in some countries. It has many medicinal
uses.

34. Leaves are beneficial for reducing blood sugar. Each part of the plant
provides some benefit or the other. The dried leaves are extensively used
in herbal medicines.

35. The Indian state known as the Spice Garden is Kerala. Kerala is a small state
full of hills and hillocks with stunning green sceneries. There are many spices
growing naturally in abundance in the state.