Nice Little Article on Spices

[Dr ROK]

For anybody interested: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/03/s...-cleaning.html

[Jerod Broussard]

Neat, I recognized the star anise and the cloves. I been eyeing this "U" shaped spice organizer near the checkout line at wal-mart.

[_John_]

Just picked up some star anise, I see it more and more in recipes lately. We are having a huge influx of Indians to the area and I love the food, if you like things along the anise and nutmeg family look into garam masala.

[Dewesq55]

I cook a lot of Indian food and don't think I have ever used star anise in an Indian recipe. Chinese is another story.

[fzxdoc]

I make my own Garam Masala, John. When it's made with fresh spices, it's amazing. Of course there are tons of garam masala recipes, so you have to choose the one that makes your taste buds the happiest.

I have experimented with Indian cooking for several years now. Some dishes are great, while others, not so much, especially in appearance (mushy for some dishes). The way the Indian cooks use their spices, roasting or pan frying them quickly in a bit of oil has been the best thing that I have learned. Ohmigosh, what an explosion of flavor that technique makes!

Kathryn

[_John_]

I love it, but my wife doesn't. Family across the street is Indian, they bring me naan, chicken tika masala and my favorite, butter chicken, in exchange for bbq.

[Dewesq55]

Kathryn:

As you may know, there are 2 basic types of Garam Marsala, cooked and uncooked, each with many different variations. The cooked ones (made with toasted spices) are meant to be added at the very end after the food is cooked. The uncooked ones need to be added earlier so that the heat of cooking develops the flavors.

[OGMrWhite]

Great article, thank you for sharing. I recently went through a spice purge. It's amazing what one can find buried in the cabinet.

A few years ago the wife and I were visiting her father in TX and offered to cook a meal. The biggest (and perhaps only) mistake we made was not checking the freshness of his spices. As we went shopping at HEB I think it was called (holy $%^& I want one near me) we kept asking if he has XYZ spice, or ABC dried herb. "Oh yes, no problem" we kept hearing. Fortunately I still snuck a few fresh herbs into the cart.

When we got home to start prepping, we opened the spice cabinet to find the exact same space jars that he owned when my wife was a kid in the 70's. The black pepper was even pre ground from then.

Not wanting to step on his pride at the time, we suffered through it and stuck with the garlic and fresh herbs we picked up. Thank goodness we stuck to a simple meal of pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes, Mac and Cheese and green beans.