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!

Fresh herbs chopping. Depending on the purpose, herbs can be fine chopped and large chopped. Finely chopped herbs are well paired and combined with other shredded components. Such a texture is specific for various paste-like sauces and marinades. Take a note that a spice combination of such a texture cannot go through heat treatment as it can cause fading of its flavor and aroma. Largely chopped herbs preserve their flavor, aroma and texture for much longer and are perfect for various types of salsa and chutney, as well as for other heat treated spice mixes.

After the leaves are separated from stalks, they should be crushed or given a coarse texture. To achieve this, you will need a very sharp knife that will nicely cut tender leaves without turning them into mash. Stack the leaves on a cutting board, press the knife tip against the cutting board with one hand while raising and lowering the knife with swinging movements with another hand and constantly moving herbs to the middle of the blade and chopping them to the desired size. From time to time, you should sweep the chopped herb into a pile in the middle of the board and repeat the entire cutting process over again. For intense chopping of herbs, you will need to constantly repeat this process for several minutes. All movements should be easy, but at the same time certain. The knife should be held tight so that it does not slip off and injure you. If you need the herbs to be of intense grinding, then you should use a blender for these purposes while adding a little of vegetable oil. To grind the herbs in a blender, it is better to use the slowest speed to avoid rapid aroma fading from already chopped herbs.

Some cooks prefer shredding fresh herbs into thin strips — chiffonade. If you want to do the same, you need to fold leaves of, for example, basil, mint or oregano into a small pile and roll it into a tube as tight as possible. Then place this tube of leaves on a cutting board and cut it across into thin strips firmly holding the tube.

Herbs drying.

This is quite an easy process. Foremost, provide yourself with fresh and healthy herbs in full blossom. You need to rinse them in a cold water and dry with a paper towel. Then tie them up into loose bundles and hang them in a well-ventilated place. On the average, drying process takes seven days. Do not dry herbs under open sun or indoors where there is a lot of heat. This can ruin herbs because excessive heat can cause fading of essential oils. Drying process is over when the herbs become breakable and start chirring. At this point, you will have to separate leaves from stems and put them into container for storing. You can crush the leaves if necessary by rubbing them between your palms or using a rolling pin over foil or parchment.

Herbs freezing.

In case if after drying, adding into a paste or in a sauce you still have some fresh herbs left, then you can freeze them and use them later. Frozen herbs preserve their flavor and aroma for 4-6 months. First of all, rinse them in cold water and dry with a paper towel. After that, cut the herbs and pack small portions of them into plastic containers or ice trays and put them in a freezer. You can also add a small amount of water or oil to the containers with herbs. To freeze whole leaves or even small bunch it is convenient to use bags with zip-lock of various sizes.

Parchment is very good for freezing individual leaves such as basil, oregano, kaffir lime or sage. You need to prepare parchment sheets of needed size by greasing them with vegetable oil and lay fresh herbs leaves over it one at a time. Once parchment is covered, place another layer of parchment and repeat the process until all the herb leaves are laid out. Once the multilayer bag is ready, wrap it in foil and place in freezer. This method is good because the leaves can be removed one by one and used for their intended purpose.