Bay leaf is a leaf that is used in cooking mostly for its aromatic purpose. Bay leaves can be used fresh or dried for their distinctive taste and flavor. There are different types of bay leaves found and all of them are used in different types of cuisines.
1. Bay leaves can be used either Fresh or dried. They are used in cooking due to their distinctive flavour and cinnamon like fragrance that they impart to the food.
2. In Indian cuisine especially, bay leaves are used to flavor rice dishes like biryanis and pulaos. Here they can either be added to the masala paste with the rice or added to the raw rice to imbibe the flavor while cooking.
3. Bay leaves form one of the main ingredients for the Indian Spice Powder, Garam Masala, that is mainly used in a lot of Punjabi cooking.
4. In Indian cuisine, the leaves are also often used whole while tempering for vegetable dishes like subzis or even dals and removed before serving. Some dishes that use bay leaf are Paneer Makhani and Gujarati Dal.
5. They can also be used to flavor the filling of certain snacks like kachori as they impart a strong flavor to it.
6. The leaves are often used to flavour soups like tomato soup, or stews that are mostly Mediterranean.
7. The leaves also flavour classic French dishes such as bouillabaisse and bouillon.
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