Book excerpt: The art of Indian cuisine at your fingertips Neeta Saluja simplifies Indian cooking with a unique approach to its preparation. She focuses on the fundamentals—the special ingredients and techniques every cook can use to create fragrant, delicious, and well balanced dishes. Six Spices demystifies the exotic and complex flavors of Indian cuisine by explaining the characteristics of its essential ingredients—hot chili powder,aromatic coriander, sweet cumin, roasted nutty mustard seeds, bold asafetida, and hearty turmeric. But here is the twist: the book also reveals the methods used to incorporate them into exquisite, authentic recipes. Keeping clarity and simplicity in mind, Saluja has created recipes easy enough for beginners, yet inspirational enough to encourage inventiveness in the more seasoned cook. Readers will discover that seasoning with chounk is one of the basic techniques used to enhance the flavor of beans and legumes. A dish of red lentils will become memorable when infused with aromatic seasoning of hot ghee, fresh herbs, and spices; and cooking with masala, or curry paste, can turn a humble dish into the essence of Indian cuisine. Saluja has taken the fear out of approaching unfamiliar culinary fare. Her recipe collection has been tasted and tested throughout her more than twenty years of teaching and cooking Indian food.