The Wonderful World of Spices

Have I ever told you about my spice cupboard?  Aside from being full of the most amazing herbs, spices and aromats from around the world, it is also full of the most amazing smell.  It makes me smile every time I open it, catch the intoxicating smell and see all the little jars, packets and boxes. It might look disorganised but actually with the help of lazy Susan (what a fantastic invention) I know where everything is.

Here in Greatness Towers we are all sick and so it has been a sleepy quiet week full of painkillers and coughing.  The need for spiced food has been high as it is full of flavour and heats up the body nicely and so everything we have eaten has been full of spice and spices.

It does amaze me how different herbs and spices can change a dish so much.  Essentially the same core ingredients can take on such a different taste with a few tricks from my little cupboard.  The cheese sauce in our crab lasagne is given a completely different taste with the addition of cardamom. The cardamom makes it so different to the cheese sauce in our classic Italian lasagne which has a small grating of nutmeg.  Take a tomato based sauce of onions, garlic and tomatoes, add basil and you are in Italy, oregano and you find yourself in Greece, thyme France, garam masala India, ras-el-hanout Morocco.  I could go on and on but you get the idea.

I have long been intrigued by herbs and spices and in recent years have embraced them so much that there really is not a day that goes by without me going into my special cupboard and taking a dish to another level.  Even avocado and a poached egg is transformed with a touch of chilli flakes.

Back in 2001 I was given a wonderful book called The Spice Routes by Chris & Carolyn Caldicott.  Contained within the brightly coloured, beautifully photographed pages are recipes full of many different spices, spice mixes and therefore tastes.  Around the time I received this book was probably when my interest in herbs and spices really piqued and my cooking became much more interesting.  More recently I purchased The Nutmeg Trail by Eleanor Ford, a truly wonderful cookbook with really beautiful recipes that also embrace the addition of herbs and spices. 

Many recipes call for whole spices to be toasted and ground - which really does bring out the flavours of spices - but let's be honest, sometimes there just is not time or enough inclination to do that.  Does it make a difference?  A little yes but it is not essential so you should feel free to use ground instead. Just remember, it is ¾ tsp of ground spices for every 1 tsp of whole spices.

There are some lovely spice blends, Baharat, Cape Malay curry powder, Zanzibar spice blend and Mexican seasoning - all of which are so different and yet often use similar base ingredients. 

For a more English dish try our pork belly which uses caraway seeds in the beer braise and is so easy, so tasty and absolutely delicious.  Serve with cabbage and you have a winning Sunday meal.

Now one of the nicest meals that encompasses all of the spices I love (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom but to name a few) is our master stock. You can put tofu in it for a vegan version or poached chicken or beef brisket for a meat version.  Master stock meals are just wonderful, they are full of flavour and the gorgeous beautiful aromatic spices bring it alive.  I also love it because it just makes you feel good, even if you are sick.  Note to self it is probably a worthwhile supper this week.

A few more essentials that rely entirely on my trusty little cupboard (and more precisely different dried chillies) are the peri peri sauce that relies on the little fire cracker birds eye chilli, potato rosti with ancho chilli chutney which uses ancho chillies as does the ancho chilli beef short ribs - although this also needs my favourite chillies, chipotles, which are also used in my chilli con carne and chilli non carne.  I really love the smoky spice of chipotle.  I also love kashmiri chilli which I put in my tikka masala, it has a gorgeous warming flavour with only a small amount of heat.  Another super interesting chilli is aleppo pepper which is used in Turkish dishes and urfa chillies are also interesting, and I am yet to order murano chillies. I find it so hard to resist new ingredients.

My absolute favourite spice (and one I am teased about very often) is cardamom.  I start every day with a vanilla spiced coffee, that spice being cardamom.  It is really makes me smile in my morning latte.  Cardamom is such a beautiful flavour, warming, rich, spicy, and just gorgeous.  It is fabulous in rice dishes and works brilliantly in savoury dishes as it really enhances them.  Where it shines the most however is in desserts - especially creamy desserts.  Do try our Baklava, the cardamom really is shown off at its absolute best.

Talking of coffee, you cannot beat coffee steak now it is peak braai season. It is smoky, spicy, tasty and finished off with butter just divine and to top that, it is so simple, 5 mins to get the spice rub together and then just cook over super hot coals and finish with a knob of butter for perfection. Best thing, if you use a Nespresso type machine you can use the ground coffee from your used pods.

Victoria does a lot of recipe testing for us and we often joke about what herbs and spices I consider essential and what she does.  I find myself saying more often than I want to how do you not have x?  It is essential!  How do you survive? And she in turn laughs at the things I say are essential. So, what do I consider essential?  Bay leaves, black and white pepper, cardamom (obviously), chillies (mild, flakes and chipotle), cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin, oregano, smoked paprika and star anise.  Although honestly I could not live without any of mine and recently was really excited (perhaps a little too excited) when I found black limes which I hope to use at the weekend.

However you use your spice cupboard, embrace it and enjoy it.