Fennel seeds (saunf) in Poland: what they are called and how to find them

Fennel seeds, saunf in Hindi, are called nasiona kopru włoskiego in Polish: literally "Italian dill seeds". Polish packs sometimes say koper włoski or fenkuł instead. The trap in a Polish shop is the word koper on its own, which means dill, a different plant with a different taste.

The Polish names on packs and shelves

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a plant of the celery family. In Poland people know it mainly as a bulb vegetable, which is eaten raw in salads or roasted. The seeds are the dried fruit of the plant: long, ridged and greenish or greenish-brown, a few millimetres long. They taste sweet, warm and of anise, with a light fresh note, milder than aniseed and with no heat.

When you shop, these are the words to look for and the ones to avoid:

In Polish supermarkets fennel seeds sit in the spice aisle, usually in small sachets. Herbal tea made from fennel is also common in Poland and is sold as herbatka z kopru włoskiego; that is a tea, not a cooking spice. Indian shops sell larger packs of whole saunf, often labelled soonf or sonf by Indian brands.

How to use fennel seeds in cooking

• Whole in a tadka: drop half a teaspoon of seeds into hot oil with cumin seeds. Fry for a few seconds until they smell.
• Panch phoron: the Bengali mix of five whole spices: fennel, nigella, fenugreek, cumin and black mustard seeds.
• Ground: ground saunf is typical of Kashmiri cooking. In dishes such as rogan josh it is combined with dried ginger and Kashmiri chilli.
• Garam masala and spice mixes: fennel is part of many home garam masalas and of pickle spice mixes.
• Masala chai: a pinch of seeds in the pan with tea, milk, cardamom and ginger.
• After a meal: in India, mukhwas is served after eating: a mix of roasted fennel seeds, often with a coloured sugar coating. In restaurants it sits in a small bowl by the till.
• European cooking: fennel seeds suit sausages, roast pork, fish and bread.

Toasting brings out the aroma. Toast the seeds in a dry pan for 1 to 2 minutes until they smell and darken slightly, then grind them in a mortar. Ground fennel loses its smell quickly, so grind small amounts.

How to store fennel seeds

Keep the seeds in an airtight jar in a dark, dry place. Whole seeds keep their aroma for many months, ground ones for much less. Good seeds are greenish and smell clearly when rubbed between your fingers. Grey, faded seeds with no smell are worth replacing.

Substitutes for fennel seeds

The closest is aniseed (anyż), but it is stronger: use about half the amount. In slow-cooked dishes a little star anise also helps. Cumin is not a substitute, because it has a completely different, earthy taste.

Where to buy fennel seeds

Little India sells fennel seeds (soonf) in several pack sizes, for example fennel seeds soonf TRS 400 g and a 1 kg pack. Other spices for tadka are in the whole spices category. Little India has shops in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk and ships orders from the online shop.