Eat Free or Die! » Blog Archive » Spices, the… umm… spice of life.

Spices, the… umm… spice of life.

Posted: Friday, August 1st, 2008 by Rob

One of the necessities of eating well is the need for appealing flavors. The American diet is heavily slanted toward basic ideas of what tastes good – sweet, salty, and fatty. Which is why a lot of people (myself included) half-jestingly consider bacon to be the Perfect Food – smoky, salty, fatty, with a bit of sweetness from the sugar in the cure.

However, what we crave is not necessarily nutritionally sound. We crave the salt, sugar, and fat because they are the basic nutritional needs that we require from food. We need salt to maintain heart rhythm, blood chemistry, and electrolyte balance. Sugar gives us instant energy for short-term demands. Fats are premium long-term energy storage – the densest calories we consume. We eat a lot of all of them. They taste good, and for very primal reasons. However, we overeat, especially fatty foods, because we need a certain sensory component to satisfy our appetite. If we take our satisfaction only from the basics, then we tend to require a larger amount of fats, salt and sugar to make us happy, because there are few other elements contributing to the gustatory experience.

Take the lowly potato. Pretty darned bland in and of itself, it’s got just a bit of starchy sweetness. Deep fry it, and sprinkle with salt, and it’s suddenly a tasty treat that’s loaded with sodium and fat – satisfying, but not healthy. Take that same potato, and cook it with other flavors – tomatoes, perhaps, and assertive seasonings – and it becomes a satisfying dish without destroying it nutritionally. As a culinary culture, we need to learn to substitute more intense flavors of spices for sugar, salt and fat’s lowest-common-denominator appeal.

For serious flavor, you need spices. Every kitchen needs spices, and not just for the cookies you bake once a year at the holidays. They’re generally the roots, seeds, and dried fruits of aromatic tropical and sub-tropical plants. In centuries past, wars were fought over the spice trade and people gave their lives for them. How sad that, for the most part, many modern cooks don’t use them to any great degree, or are ignorant of their wondrous properties.

I’ve got a lot of little glass jars stacked up in my spice cabinet. Some of these are essentials. Some, not so much. Below is the list that I believe that every kitchen should contain, with a few optional additions. If at all possible, they should be purchased fresh, kept whole and ground when needed, and discarded after two years if they’ve begun to lose their aromas. If you like the convenience of pre-ground spices, they should be discarded after six months to a year.

Essential:

Cinnamon – You need it for baking, for Indian dishes, and it’s good with root vegetables. There are two types of cinnamon, Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum zeylanicum. C. cassia is the type most usually found in the US, and is more assertive than its cousin C. zeylanicum (AKA “Ceylon Cinnamon” or “true” cinnamon). Buy sticks and grate as needed.
Coriander – The dried seed of the plant whose greens we call cilantro, when ground and used to season broiled or grilled foods, it gives a bright, greenish, citrusy flavor – great with fish & pork. In slower cooked dishes like curried lentils, it gives a mellower lemongrass-like profile.
Cumin – An absolute essential for Indian, Mexican, and Tex-Mex spice mixes. Use whole seeds with vegetable curries, and ground as rubs for meats or in sauces. Use sparingly – cumin can be overwhelming.
Mustard Seed – Yellow or brown, though I prefer brown. These little edible BB’s contribute an earthy, aromatic quality to sauteed vegetables. I use them whole and add them to hot olive oil to “pop” a bit before sauteeing.
Turmeric – Used in a lot of Indian and Thai foods, this earthy bright-yellow root powder makes basmati rice bright yellow and fragrant, and pairs well with Brassica family members (broccolli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc.).
Nutmeg – Buy whole, and it lasts for ages. Buy ground, and it turns to sawdust in months. Wonderful when used sparingly in egg dishes and grated over roasted root veggies. Also works wonders when used to flavor white sauces for vegetables and fish.
Cloves – Another great spice for carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, and other foods from underground. Toss young carrots (sans greens) with olive oil, kosher salt, and ground cloves, and roast in the oven at 425° until tender.
Pepper – White and black pepper are the same fruit from the same plant, Piper nigrum. The white version has been soaked to remove the outer skin of the berry before drying. They taste pretty much the same, but the white ones don’t spoil your bechamel’s good looks with black spots.
Fennel Seed – Frequently toasted in oil and used to cook vegetables in Indian dishes. Does yeoman’s duty in hearty pasta sauces, where its licorice flavors get along swimmingly with crumbled pork sausage.
Ginger – A fibrous tuber with a bright, sweet-hot flavor, this should always be bought fresh and whole, then grated when needed. The only time you should use other than fresh-grated ginger is when baking, and crystallized (sugar-cured) ginger is a better choice than ground. The powder, as well as the jarred stuff in vinegar brine, are inferior in flavor and aroma.
Paprika – This powder of dried and ground sweet red Hungarian peppers as an earthen pungency to meats – it’s used as a base spice for many barbecue rubs and seafood seasonings.

Optional:

Caraway Seed – A friend of those who like cabbage, as it’s supposed to minimize its gassiness. These little fruits (“seed” is a misnomer) are a must with sauerkraut.
Cardamom – Nice to have for making fragrant rice, rice puddings, and spiced black tea.
Garam Masala – A blend of several spices, including black pepper, cinnamon, and cloves. Used in Indian/Pakistani cuisine as a seasoning similar to the way Europeans use plain black pepper.
Saffron – Nowhere near a must, but there are times when this subtle spice works wonders. It is the key to the decadent rice dishes of Spain and India. Indian cooks infuse its color and aroma into milk and flavor basmati rice with the liquor. Buy “coupe” grades, even though they’re more expensive – you’ll get more flavor from a smaller amount, because they contain more concentrated amounts of vital aromatics, and consist of only the flavorful red parts of the flower stamen.

With less than a dozen spice selections in your arsenal, you can learn to put together combinations that will transform drab veggies and bland meats into flavor bombs. Mix paprika, cumin, coriander, cloves, and black pepper for a spice rub for grilled pork chops or chicken. Heat mustard seed, turmeric, and caraway together in oil before sauteeing frozen cauliflower, broccolli, and carrot mix. Soon, you won’t need to pile on the salt, sugar and fat to make meals that are music to your mouth.