Spice Road Spices
Artisan Spice Merchants
The Art of Flavour
Spice Road Spices
Artisan Spice Merchants
The Art of Flavour
Your Herbs and Spices and The Art of Flavour
It's all about proper flavour. Following on from Tomato Paste part 1 (Epicurean 51) our many skilled subscribers will no doubt be aware that it is equally important that the true flavour from your spices be extracted at the beginning of the recipe.
Tomato Paste - The Art of Flavour.
Our learned subscribers may have noticed that many of our recipes mention tomato paste should never be added halfway through a recipe. And further, our recipes have also noted that it is essential you caramelise the tomato paste at the beginning of the recipe. Important stuff.
We were reminded of this from a recent comment in an American food journal where the need to caramelise tomato paste was looked at in some detail. Many of the points in the article were covered in our previous blog, however, for home chefs a little of the detail might be worth repeating.
Our wine making friends will not like to read this but frying or grilling with grape seed oil is not a good move.
For home chefs there seems little point in working towards a full health diet to then stuff it all up by frying or grilling with grape seed oil.
There are a great many nice things about putting the Epicurean Journal together and one of the nicest is the Texts, Emails and Recipe suggestions from subscribers.
Mostly we show suggestions and comments under Subscribers Comments, however, we occasionally receive a note that warrants special status.
Not wishing to start on too dramatic a note but Salt can sometimes cause health issues.
Extending this to our campaign for healthy and fresh ingredients, our view at Spice Road Spices and the Epicurean is that it would seem rather pointless to rattle on about the acknowledged health benefits of Farmers Markets and Grass Fed Beef, then stuff it all up with an overload of salt.
This is a special Blog covering unique Salt Free Recipes and News for an enjoyable Salt Free diet.
Plus a curated selection of premium Salt Free Spices to create your own special flavour in your recipe. Toasted and ground on the day of dispatch for your freshness
Salt Free - Spices - Flavour. Simple enough for all those looking for a Salt Free diet. So let's cut to the chase on this. You need to start with a recipe of course and there are plenty of excellent Salt Free recipes about, each with one common denominator. They rely on Spices to replace the salt flavour and then add their own flavour character to the recipe.
And this brings us to the problem. Many of the spices available in Australia are either diminished by age, well into their 3 month life span by sitting on store shelves or simply produced from inferior growers.
For Home Chefs there is no escape. Think of the stunning Greek style, lamb shoulder bake and you will find an essential. Citrus.
And Citrus continues. Look to your favourite Risotto or a Salad Dressing. Perhaps a prized sauce that you have developed in the privacy of your home kitchen. Or your favourite (very secret) BBQ marinade. Maybe a vegetable Capanata from Spain or Italy. Even a two hour Bolognaise stew from Italy and there it will be again. Citrus.
Herbs and Spices. I suppose it's fairly predictable that I would start this way. Quite simply, your favourite dish should start with the best Herbs and Spices. Not your artificially flavoured, salt laden and preservative added mixtures on supermarket shelves but plain, pure and natural Herbs and Spices that have been delivering flavour to us for over 3000 years.
All good but before you think I'm getting a bit carried away with this Spice flavour thing, I accept the obvious that the dish must first start with the ingredients.
Slice the Ancho Peppers down the centre, open the skin and remove the seeds and the top stem.
Break the skin into smaller pieces then place in a bowl with very hot tap water. Cover the skins completely - use a small plate to press down if the skins float to the surface - and allow to sit for about 30 minutes.
Our spices begin their journey.
