POPPY HUSK (BHUKKI)

In Indian cuisine, white poppy seeds are added for thickness, texture and also give added flavor to the recipe. Commonly used in the preparation of korma, ground poppy seed, along with coconut and other spices, are combined as the masala to be added at the end of the cooking step. It is quite hard to grind them when raw, so they are normally dry fried, and then mixed with a little water to get the right paste consistency.

Words for poppy seed paste include Tamil Kasa kasaa கசகச Kannada - Gasagase (ಗಸಗಸೆ) or Telugu gasagasa గసగస or gasagasaalu or Hindi - Khas Khas खस खस.

Poppy seeds are widely used in Andhra cuisine, Bengali cuisine, Oriya cuisine, and Malabar cuisine (Northern Kerala).

In Bengal (West Bengal and Bangladesh) white poppy seeds are called পোস্তো. They are very popular and are used as the main ingredient in a variety of dishes. One of the most popular dishes is aloo posto (potato and poppy seeds) which consists of a large amount of ground poppy seeds cooked together with potatoes and made into a smooth, rich product, which is sometimes eaten with rice. There are many variants to this basic dish, replacing or complementing the potatoes with such ingredients as onions (pnyaj posto), Ridged Luffa (jhinge posto), chicken (murgi posto), and possibly the most popular prawns (chingri posto). The cooked poppy seeds are sometimes served without any accompanying ingredients at all. The consistency of the dish may vary depending on local or household traditions. There are many other posto dishes. Chachchari is a dish from Bengali cuisine and includes long strips of vegetables, sometimes with the stalks of leafy greens added, all lightly seasoned with spices like mustard or poppy seeds and flavored with a phoron. One dish involves grilling patties made fromposto, sometimes frying them (posto-r bora). Another dish involves simply mixing uncooked ground poppy seeds(kancha posto) with mustard oil, chopped green chili peppers, fresh onions and rice.

In Karnataka cuisine, Gasagase Payasa (Kannada: ಗಸಗಸೆ ಪಾಯಸ) is very popular in southern part of the South Indian state of Karnataka. It is a liquid dessert made out of white poppy seeds, jaggery, coconut and milk. Saaru is a gravy prepared with onions, coconut, tamarind, cilantro, and a combination of various spices (garlic, ginger, clove, cinnamon, poppy seeds, star anise, fennel, chillies and coriander). Andhra cuisine also uses white poppy seeds, called Gasaalu (గసాలు) in Telugu, in various recipes.

In Maharashtra, poppy seeds are used to garnish anarsa, a special sweet prepared during the festival of Diwali.

The seeds themselves do not contain significant amounts of opiates. But a poppy tea consumed in some areas and often referred to as dodahas been controversial for containing ground opium poppy plant, especially the seed head, and contains significant levels of opiates.^[29]Popular in some South Asian communities, doda is created by grinding dried poppy husks or poppy seeds into a fine powder and then ingesting the mix with hot water or tea. In Canada, doda is made from poppy plants brought in from Afghanistan and Arizona under the guise of legal purposes such as floral arrangements, but is sold illegally from some meat markets.^[30]

Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). The tinykidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. The seeds are used, whole or ground, as an ingredient in many foods, and they are pressed to yield poppyseed oil.