Spice Road Spices
Spice Merchants
The Art of Flavour Sunday e-magazine
Spice Road Spices
Spice Merchants
The Art of Flavour Sunday e-magazine
When it comes to flavour, being born in Morocco gives you a solid head start.
And to be rated alongside the flavour of Palestinian Za'atar Spice Blend or the Berebere Spice Blend from Ethiopia places the exciting Moroccan Chermoula in very special company .
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.
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.
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.
The first thing you will notice once started on your brief journey for Roasted Garlic is the smell. Soft, warm, slightly sweet and very inviting. Caramelised pretty much covers it.
We did a brief piece on Roasted Garlic some time ago and since then more and more recipes are noting this amazingly simple flavour essential
The learned Foodie, Adam Florance mentioned using Parsley Stems in his excellent recipe for Moroccan Lamb Riblets ( refer Recipes ).
Adam would not advise the addition of Parsley Stems as opposed to Parsley Leaves without good reason and given that Parsley is an essential in so many recipes, we decided to look into this Parsley business further.
And neither are all Herbs and Spices!
For many of the very special Foodies across Australia the differences in Cinnamon are common knowledge. However, for general interest and starting out Foodies we should note that there are two types of Cinnamon available but only one genuine Cinnamon. Ceylon Cinnamon from Sri Lanka.
The other Cinnamon is the one you will find in most supermarkets. Cassia or fake Cinnamon. Generally from Indonesia, China or Vietnam, the bark is harvested from the Cassia tree and while it is a good deal cheaper than Ceylon Cinnamon it has a very poor flavour imitation of real Cinnamon and a slightly bitter after taste.
All this came to mind when we received our latest delivery of true Ceylon Cinnamon. Looking at the Cinnamon differences, we reflected that the same quality differences are evident with pretty much all Herbs and Spices.
Predictably, we would say that our Spices are the purest and the freshest of course but more importantly, we care about how the Herbs and Spices are grown and harvested.
I know we have used this opening before but from the texts received relating to our previous piece we thought it would be good to dig a bit deeper into this special relationship between Goats Cheese (Chevre) and the ancient Egyptian spice blend, Dukkah.
The unique compatibility with Dukkah is simple enough. Dukkah is made up of Nuts, Sesame Seeds, Coriander, and Cumin. The crunchy texture of the nuts is a lovely counter to the smooth rich and earthy tang of the Goats Cheese. And when combined with the citrus and sage notes of the Coriander and the warm, spicy Cumin, you will have pure North African, Middle Eastern flavour. Awesome !
Walnut Oil - Salad perfection. It follows that having reviewed and in fact learnt a good deal about the quality of Australian Walnuts from Otway Walnuts - refer recent BLOG posting - we should follow with a review of another Otway product. Otway Walnut Oil.
And another revelation ! Walnut Oil has long been accepted as an essential part of many salad dressings, especially those based around apples - read Waldorf Salad. And just like our impression of many supermarket Walnuts, we just assumed the sometimes tannic flavour notes were part of the deal.
