What Spices do You Have?
A TV guest recently asked chef Mario Batali which spices he always keeps in his kitchen.
Batali’s advice: Go home and chuck all the spices in the cupboard.
“You’ve probably had them since you made chicken tikka masala in the 1980s,” Batali joked.
Spices don’t last forever, he said.
After garlic — because no kitchen should be without the magic bulb — Batali’s go-to flavor enhancers include fresh basil, oregano, coriander, mustard seed and rosemary, along with cinnamon and nutmeg.
“Then you have everything you need for savory and sweet dishes,” he said.
Batali suggests buying only small quantities of herbs and spices when you need them.
Buying a new jar of pre-packaged spice at the grocery store gets expensive if you’re replacing partially used jars every year or so.
Enter The Savory Spice Shop in Palm Desert.
Co-owner Mary Cardas visited a store in Oceanside this year and loved the idea. “I really thought we really needed one in the desert,” she said.
The store, which opened in early November, offers 400 herbs and spices, 130 spice/herb blends and 31 extracts.
Many can be purchased in quantities as small as a quarter of an ounce. “That way you’re not wasting your money on something you may only use once a year,” Cardas said.
Along with everyday necessities like kosher salt or granulated garlic, you can try more exotic varieties like Hawaiian black lava, pink Himalayan and delicate apricot Murray River salts; Tasmanian pepper berries; Tahitian vanilla beans; aged black Korean garlic; and the fabulously hot bhut jalokia chilies, or ghost peppers, from the Assam region in India.
You can smell and test taste most of the spices on the shelves.
While the herbs and spices at the Palm Desert shop are fairly fresh, Cardas recommends pinching or lightly rubbing the spices in the palm of your hand to release their aromatic oils. Or, heat powdered spices for a few seconds in a dry pan to warm their oils and help the flavors blossom.
Along with several varieties of Batali’s must- haves, here’s a tour of some intriguing herbs and spices you’ll find on the spice shop shelves:
Allspice: Allspice’s flavor profile is often called a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves, hence its name. It is used in Caribbean cooking and for baking.
Fenugreek: A lesser known spice from the pea family, with a sweet/bitter taste and a hint of celery. Often used in Indian curries and breads from South Asia and Ethiopia.
Galangal root: A spice of many names, including Thai ginger, galangal root has a peppery ginger taste. Use it in curries, stews and soups, sambals, satays and sauces. Give it a fine grind or remember to remove the root pieces before serving.
Juniper berries: The ripe, dried cones of the juniper shrub, the flavor is spicy with a hint of pine. Used to make gin and liqueurs, the berries are also used in pickling spices, for corned beef and sauerbraten.
Lemongrass: A staple of Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian cuisine, this tropical grass is now cultivated around the world. Pairs well with garlic, galangal, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, coconut milk, basil, cilantro and chilies.
Mahlab: Used in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, it is the powdered pit of wild black cherry tree fruit. It has a rose scent and taste. Use sparingly for fragrant Greek Easter bread and mamool, a Middle Eastern cookie and other breads, cakes and pastries.
Pomegranate molasses: It takes a quart of slowly reduced pure pomegranate juice to make a cup of this deep magenta tangy/sweet molasses, used in Middle Eastern cooking. Use with poultry, fish, lamb, pork, vegetables, salads, dips or dressings or drizzled on ice cream.
Saffron: The deep red/orange stigma of the crocus sativus flower. It takes the hand-picked stigmas of 100 flowers to produce a gram of saffron. Most dishes, like Spanish paella, Italian risotto, French bouillabaisse, Arabic lamb, Italian sauces and holiday breads, require 6 to 8 saffron threads.
Star anise: The aromatic fruit of a tree in the Magnolia family, it is native to southern China and Vietnam. It has a sweet hint of licorice. Pairs well with fruit and is often mixed with cinnamon and cloves to poach fruits.
Judith Salkin is a features writer. She can be reached at (760) 778-4771 or [email protected]
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