Hello everyone. A few months ago I posted about finding carom or ajwain seeds in Canberra (Australia) and I was told that they should be easily enough available. This is an update. (I couldn't find my earlier post.)

Well, I haven't had any success until today. I found them on Spices of India, but they don't deliver to Australia so that's no good. Then I googled them and discovered that apparently they are lovage seeds. (Does anyone know if this is true?) I found various garden supply companies selling those but in very small quantities for growing lovage plants - not quite what I wanted. Finally I found an Australian spices company that does mail order and sells carom/ajwain seeds and I have ordered some

So perhaps once they arrive I will be able to make the chicken pakoras recipe and take photographs.

Oh Heather, you could have made the pakoras without them. Though they give a great flavour, they are not essential.

Hi Heather, carom/ajwain seeds are not the same as lovage seeds. I use carom a lot and lovage is a great herb for using in soups, so I asked that question on here and Lapis informed me that they are not the same thing...so I guess I'll end up having to buy some lovage seeds in the end :-)

Carom seeds smell a bit like dried thyme to me and lovage has a strong celery-like smell to it.

Hi Heather,

There are a number of Indian shops in Canberra and they will definitely have them. Do a search on the net to find one close to you or ask at an Indian restaurant, they'll be able to tell you where to find a shop.

Hope you find one soon!

Shalini

lovage and ajwain were always confused, mostly in books of the late sixties and seventies (19!) amd plagerism has continued this. They are very different seeds, one tastes of thyme (ajwain) and lovage tastes of celery. They also look very differemt. However, they are from the same botanical family (google this is you are unsure was is meant by family, genus and species, cultivar, variety, etc.) which includes celery, radhuni, cumin, coriander, fennel, sweet cicerly, parsley, dill, carrot, parsnip and many more.

Nearly always carom is labeled ajwain (or variations of the spelling). I am in a wonderful position of having 20 or more spice shops within a 10 minute walk, and of those I can remember, all are labeled ajwain. The Engish name for it is Bishop's weed!

I think ajwain adds somethng special to the flavour of deep fried food.

Hi Mamta,

I actually have made the chicken pakoras recipe without carom seeds (I substituted cumin which tasted fine) but I feel I can't provide photographs without the right ingredients.

I did actually try in my local Indian shop but had no success - not sure why not. But I am getting them by mail order now so all is well.

I did have a suspicion that lovage and carom might be different things. The seeds coming by mail order are carom/ajwain, not lovage.

Heather

Tell us when you have made them with the carom seeds. They do have a nice flavour. Pictures of steps and final product will be most welcome, since I haven't made them for a long while.

Mamta

Once you have tracked down the Ajwain seeds also try Mamta's Tandoori Chicken -2, Ajwani

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10013

which is delicious!

You made it Winton, where are my pictures :-(?