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!

Crushing in a mortar or blender.

Most cooks store their spices as whole spices as this is how they retain their flavour and aroma for a long time, unlike ground spices. When adding spices to a spice blend you certainly need to grind them. Soft spices should be ground in stone mortars while being added little by little — 2 tablespoons per grind. For effective grinding, move the pistil along the seeds in a circular motion. A coffee grinder or blender in turn is very useful for grinding more solid types of spices and giving a powder thickness to the mix. Fresh ingredients such as ginger, garlic, chili and herbs can easily ground in the same mortar. For a more homogeneous paste, use a blender when grinding fresh ingredients. The smaller the pieces you put in the device, the more uniform the paste will be. To combine all the ingredients into a homogeneous paste, you need to add a little of vegetable oil.

Grating.

Sometimes, fresh ingredients such as garlic, ginger, galangal and chili pepper are grated in a grater before being added to the paste. Grater is also very useful for grinding nutmeg and removing the peel from citrus fruits.

Pounding.

Fresh ingredients with a soft texture, such as lemongrass, ginger, galangal and some others are often pounded with the back of the knife (spine) before cooking to release their aroma. Such a technique is used saturate a certain spicy combination with the aroma and flavors of the ingredients listed above just before removing them.

Cutting fresh ingredients.

This method is used for preparing fresh ingredients for making paste out of them. It consists in slicing spices into sticks or small cubes to intensify an aroma of fresh spices such as lime leaves, ginger, chili and lemongrass. Lime leaves are cut into small strips; the chili pepper is cut along into two parts and, after removing the seeds, it can be cut in any form; the white part of the lemongrass after, cutting the outer layer, is cut into rings. A large root of ginger or galangal is cut in following way: cut off a piece of necessary size, peel and cut across the fibers (in a form of thin slices, strips or small cubes). In addition to these ingredients, this method is used to prepare various herbs for paste preparation.

Fresh herbs processing.

After purchase, fresh herbs should be thoroughly rinsed off dust and dirt under running cold water and then dried. Then it’s time for their further processing. Usually, only leaves and small stalks of herbs are used for pastes and sauces. Large stalks are usually removed but not disposed as they can be used for aromatization of various other dishes to avoid a great deal of waste in kitchen. These large stalks can be added to salads or cold dishes and snacks. Wood stalks of rosemary, thyme, tarragon, oregano or marjoram can be used as skewers or for flavoring, for example, they can be added into a stew, soup, on grill coal or barbecue.

In order to separate leaves from soft stalks herbs such as coriander (cilantro), parsley, dill, fennel or basil, you should hold the solid stalk with one hand while plucking the leaves with the other hand. The leaves on wooden stalks are separated from the base to the top: hold the base of the stalk with one hand, and the fingers of the other hand purge away the leaves from the entire stalk moving towards its tip.

If you are not going to use fresh herbs immediately, you need to prepare them for temporary storage. Take a small container, cover the bottom with a sheet of paper towels, and put herbs leaves into container. Close the container tightly and place it in the refrigerator. Herbs can be stored for 5-7 days in such a way, so they should be used as intended during this time. You can also use freezer bags to store small bunches of herbs. Just place few stalks in a bag and sprinkle slightly with water. Close the bag tightly and place it in the refrigerator. A bunch of fresh herb can be stored by placing its base in a small container of water, and then put in the refrigerator. You can store herbs about 1-2 days in such a way.