Botanical name - Papaver somniferum
Country of Origin - Turkey
White Poppy Seeds have a nutty aroma and add a crunchy texture to dishes. In India the seeds are usually ground, to thicken and flavour sauces. They also taste good in sweet pastries and breads and are ideal for garnishing vegetables
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.
The seeds of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) are widely consumed in many parts of Central and Eastern Europe. The sugared, milled mature seeds are eaten with pasta, or they are boiled with milk and used as filling or topping on various kinds of sweet pastry.
Poppy seeds are widely used in Austrian cuisine, Czech cuisine, German cuisine, Hungarian cuisine, Polish cuisine, Romanian cuisine, Russian cuisine, Slovak cuisine, Turkish cuisine and Ukrainian cuisine.
In Jewish cuisine, pastries filled with poppy seed paste are traditional during Purim, which occurs at approximately a month before Easter. Traditional pastries include poppy seed kalács and hamantash, both sometimes known as beigli (also spelled bejgli). In Israeli cuisine, poppy seed hamantash is the main traditional food eaten at Purim. This filling is referred to as "munn," a Yiddish variation on the German word for moon. Munn pastries are common in Jewish bakeries and delicatessens throughout the United States.