WHILE the heat is wringing the best out of us, the good thing about it is that it is the best time of the year for grinding spices and spice blends.

Somewhere in their culinary evolution, humans began using herbs and spices to flavour their food. As cuisines and recipes evolved, so did the use of combinations of spices and spice blends that were used to cook and flavour foods with.

And India being the spices box to the world, nobody knows how to use spices better than us. But with every cuisine the all-important "secret ingredient" is often a spice or blend of spices, a small amount of which, stirred into a dish gives it distinction.

Photograph: stock.xchnge