Panch Phora (Five Seeds)

This post is for me so I can remember the 5 seeds, and also as an idea when I wonder what to eat.

Panch Phora has nothing to do with the Chinese five-spice powder. It is reputed to be of Bengali origin and anyway it is not a powder.
The idea is to balance "sweet, pungent, tangy, hot and amalgamating" (from an article on Phang Phora on Gourmet Traveller of March 1999). I would not myself qualify "amalgamating" as flavour, but here you are.

Here is one recipe:
- Brown mustard seeds (the heat of mustard comes over time after the seeds comes in contact with water)
- Nigella seeds (not to be confused with black cumin, the sometimes are called onion seeds or kolonji) for "tangy"
- Cumin
- Fenugreek (listed as "hot" ????)
- Fennel

A very simple dish where you can use phang phora is diced and pan-fried potatoes.