Toasting and blooming spices
From what I've read, to make some spices more "potent", you have to toast or bloom them. Take cinnamon stick for example, in most Indian recipes, they call for it to be fried in oil (blooming). Other spices like coriander needs to be toasted first.
Different spice calls for a different treatment. What about if I toasted the cinnamon stick first and then fried it in oil? Will it somehow make it more potent? The same case goes for coriander; will it "improve" the coriander if I toast it first, ground it, and the fried the powder in oil?
For more context, lets say the cinnamon stick is for biryani and the coriander for some stew.
Best Answer
Toasting followed by blooming would not make spices "more potent" than either toasting or blooming alone, but would make them taste different.
Per Serious Eats:
Frying spices in oil gives them a completely different flavor than dry-roasting. When dry-roasted, a spice's flavor changes in fundamental ways: volatile aromatics begin to cook off, while compounds in the spice recombine to form new flavors that are often deeper, roasted, and earthier. Frying them in oil, on the other hand, tends to enhance the original flavors of a spice, making them bolder and more intense, almost as if they've become more sure of themselves. In short, oil-fried spices have a brighter and fresher aroma compared to dry-roasted spices.
For this reason, you might use spices that are dry-roasted but not fried, spices that are fried but not roasted, or even spices that are roasted and fried. In the last case, you're trying to spread the nuttier/earthier flavor of the roasted spice through more of the dish by infusing the oil.
There's a caveat, though, which is that spices that have already been roasted will burn much faster than raw spices, particularly if they've been ground. As such, you'll want to add them to less hot oil, or to oil that already has other things in it bringing the temperature down (like chopped onions).
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Quick Answer about "Toasting and blooming spices"
Toasting (dry heat) and blooming in oil (moist heat) are classic techniques. Blooming whole spices Blooming a spice in oil is a bit like sautéing a vegeetable: It's quick, and the resulting flavor is bright. The combination of heat and oil quickly extracts aromatic compounds from a spice.What does it mean to bloom spices?
Blooming is a technique where you take some spices and heat them up in oil to release and amplify the flavor of the spice.What spices should be bloomed?
For whole spices, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves, and dried chilies are very common. In addition, many recipes will call for asafetida (hing) and chili powder, popular ground spices to use.What does toasting do to spices?
Toasting spices in a dry pan draws out their flavour and allows their qualities to permeate through a dish. Toasting spices is best done before grinding, just keep an eye out so they don't burn.How do you make spices bloom?
Add a set amount of ground spices to one pan, and cook briefly, about 30 seconds, then add water. In the other pan, reverse the order: Add the water first, then the ground spices. Stir both up and taste. You should notice a marked difference in flavor.How to release more flavor from your spices
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