Cooking with spice mixes, pastes and sauces

Alex Cramer, 2018

This cookbook is about the art of mixing herbs and spices.– You will get acquainted with the main theory of mixing the spices and herbs.– You will discover the 35 most popular spices and herbs.– You will find out a description of the 35 most popular varieties of chili peppers.– You will learn many more useful information.And finally you will plunge into the world of spicy combinations and get acquainted with the recipes of more than 300 dry spice mixes, pastes and sauces, as well as their variations.Step by step you will learn the art of fragrant spice balance and the taste's magic of spicy combinations!

Containers for storing

The best container for storing spices, spicy pastes and mixes is a glass jar with a locking lid. You can buy as a whole set of these jars or buy them separately of different sizes.

Nutmeg grater

A special miniature grater designed for grating a specific quantity of nutmeg. If you don't have an opportunity to purchase nutmeg grater, you can take usual grater for this purpose. Nutmeg grater is also useful when you need to grate lemon peel, ginger, garlic and even chili.

Knife and cutting board

A knife for cutting fresh ingredients should always be well sharpened. I recommend two knives for such purposes: one small to easily peel ginger, garlic and onions; and wide chef's knife of high quality to easily shred fresh ingredients and chop different herbs. You might also want to get a sharpener to take care of your knife sharpness any time you need it. The cutting board is necessary for any manipulations with the knife.

Garlic press

It will help you to quickly crush garlic cloves and sometimes ginger, if necessary.

Kitchen Scales

I strongly recommend that you get a small, and yet, ultra-accurate kitchen scales. They are irreplaceable in those cases when it is required to add an exact amount of ingredient.

PREPARATION OF INGREDIENTS FOR SPICE BLENDS

There are several methods of preparing spices and fresh ingredients for making dry mixes or pastes. The choice depends on particular component, however, no matter what method you would choose, you should keep in mind only one goal — preserving flavor and taste of the ingredient as well as of the whole spicy combination you made.

Roasting.

This process involves warming the whole species up which leads to releasing and intensifying their flavor and aroma. You need to place frying pan on medium heat, warm it up and pour the spices in. Depending on spices size, the warm-up process lasts from one to three, and in some cases up to 5-10 minutes. Do not forget to stir the spices and shake the frying pan constantly to prevent burning the spices. When spices become a bit darker and get to smoking point and you sense a pleasant aroma, that means that spices warmed up enough and essential oils came into effect. After that you should lay the spices out into a plate or a bowl and let them cool down. Once they are cool, you should put them into a mortar or a coffee grinder and bring them to the desired grinding. In most cases, spices are warmed up in a dry frying pan. However, some recipes require roasting spices in hot oil. Usually, this should be done before adding fresh ingredients or for flavoring the oil.