Poppy & Basil Seeds

White poppy seeds are tiny, creamy seeds ground into a paste with cashews or coconut to thicken and enrich Mughlai kormas, Hyderabadi dishes and Chettinad kurma, and they are the star of Bengali posto. Called khus khus in Hindi and kasa kasa in Tamil, they have a mild, nutty flavour and turn silky when ground.

Sweet basil seeds, sold as tukmaria or sabja, look like tiny black grains and swell into gel-coated pearls once soaked. They are the seeds in falooda, rose milk, nimbu sharbat and many Indian and Southeast Asian drinks. They are sometimes confused with chia, but they swell faster and are softer, with no strong taste of their own. For the rest of a falooda, see falooda and rose syrup.

Soak white poppy seeds in warm water for half an hour before grinding, and they will blend smooth. Soak basil seeds in plenty of cold water for about fifteen minutes, since a spoonful swells to several times its size. Both keep best sealed in a cool, dry cupboard. More seeds are in whole spices, including sesame seeds for sweets and cardamom for flavouring the milk.