Spice Road Spices
Artisan Spice Merchants
The Art of Flavour
It's hard to imagine a lemon, always an essential in the Art of Flavour, being a serious replacement for salt in our diet.
First, consider the magic. Both lemons and salt work in a similar manner on your tongue with the simple salty and sour taste receptors depending solely on the tongues ions – that is, sodium for salt and hydrogen for acidity. In this case, citrus.
Being in the business of premium Herbs and Spices, the importance of generous natural flavour is never far from our thinking.
So I thought it might be interesting to revisit the short article below, previously published in the Epicurean Post on the subject of salt free, salt reduced and generous flavour.
Moroccan Chermoula. Even the name offers the thought of wonderful food flavours and memorable meals.
And when it comes to flavour, being born in Morocco over 2000 years ago gives you a nice head start.
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.
Hi everybody
The following might seem a bit obvious but Herbs and Spices do not have the luxury of leaving their farms or plantations with all being equal.
I know I have previously said that I have no wish to lecture our many talented subscribers on how to cook. That is not our purpose but sometimes things need to be said.
I recently noted the thoughts from an American chef and food writer that the way we transfer whatever pasta we are cooking to the pan is not always the best way to capture the full pasta flavour left in the pasta water.
Wine and food pairing To start it should be appreciated that all this wine pairing business is, most definitely, not an exact science.
Given the great variation in personal tastes this is obvious.
Holy Basil, The Queen of Herbs. Reprinted from the Epicurean Post ebook.
Hi everybody Six months ago I had never heard of the herb, Holy Basil. This is not the fault of Holy Basil. It is because Holy Basil is mostly seen as a tea. And six months ago I did not drink tea.
And you would think that if it is viewed as a herbal tea (often described as Tulsi Green Tea) then it has no logical place in this Epicurean Post ebook. You do not readily reach for a herbal tea when searching for flavour in your recipe ! . Holy Basil in the Kitchen But as a tea the health benefits of this herb are staggering. More on this in a moment. For the kitchen and to maintain our epicurean interest, note that along with the tea, the dried leaves are a staple in Thai cooking. Look to the Beef Pad Gaprao or Pad Kra Pao Pork recipes.
On this day around 2000 years ago a "Caravan" loaded with Turmeric and Ginger, the spice "gold" at the time, left Southern India bound for Rome.
The "Caravan" travelled by primitive boat to the North Indian port of.......then travelling across.... braving and defending bandit attacks they arrived in.......and departed on a further sea voyage the Persian Gulf and the markets of Alexandria in........
Are we adding flavour in moderation with everything but Salt ?
Hi everyone.
I really do think that what follows needs to be said. It won't take long so please stay with me. And this small piece is only my view of course and really forms the basis for the Epicurean Post. No doubt many will not agree but for whatever the reason, it seems to me we are much too timid when adding our flavours to favourite recipes.