ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JUDY WALKER THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
The history of spices is the history of civilization. Study spices for very long, and you become immersed in the ancient trade routes, the quests that queens commissioned that wound up opening the world.
Spend a little time thinking about modern spices, and you see the attraction. Spices open worlds of flavor. Imagine how they enlivened monotonous medieval cuisine.
So what exactly are spices? Spices are the dried aromatic roots, bark, buds, seeds, berries and other fruits of tropical plants. Herbs are spices' green, leafy counterparts.
The Asian tropics yielded the first-used and still most important spice plants, including cinnamon, pepper, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Allspice, vanilla and chiles come from the West Indies and Central America, according to Jill Norman, author of ``The Complete Book of Spices.'' The aromatic seeds coriander, fenugreek, fennel, poppy and mustard come from the Mediterranean basin. Caraway, dill and juniper are associated with colder regions.
The latest cycle of interest in spices has to do with the savor they add to low-fat cooking. In addition, spice blends are more popular than ever, evoking exotic locales with the shake of a can.
Spice blends go far beyond the relatively well-known curry powder of India, Chinese five-spice and the French quatre-epices, or four-spice blend. Contemporary chefs and ethnic restaurants familiarize patrons with blends such as Thai curry pastes; garam masala, the main spice blend of northern India; Ethiopian berbere; the fiery chile sauce harissa, used in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco; and North African and Turkish zahtar.
``All the trends start in the restaurants,'' said Connie Halula, gourmet-food buyer for Cost Plus, an import chain based in Oakland, Calif. ``Thai is so hot. Indian and Spanish cooking are coming on strong. And we're doing a whole Caribbean thing next year.''
Some of the little-known spices are listed in the chart on Page 4, but there are others you might see explored before 2000, too. Fagara, also known as Sichuan pepper, is unrelated to black or white pepper but has been used as food and medicine in China, India and Japan for ages. Grains of Paradise, related to cardamom, was highly important in the 14th and 15th centuries, but is now used almost exclusively in West African cooking.
People want more spice blends, Halula said, and she has seen an upsurge in demand for hotter spices. Cost Plus carries such exotica as African bird pepper, also called long pepper. Like most spice purveyors in this country, Cost Plus buys spices from an importer. For its private label, they are packaged in small, clear packets.
Which brings us to the No.1 piece of spice advice: Buy spices in small amounts so they'll be fresher. Five-year-old mace won't do much for your special cookie recipe.
But it's hard to get rid of a tin of musty spice when you paid so much for it in the first place. Spices are costly. One vanilla bean can cost $1.80, although it can be used and dried and reused and kept in a jar of sugar in between.
Smaller sizes cost less. In general, the less packaging there is around spices, the less expensive they will be. Do you really need a big fancy bottle?
Start saving small jars and make your own labels if you have spices left over from the packets. And if you have old spices you can't bear to discard, consider using them in potpourri, or dump them into water and boil to freshen your home with the remaining fragrance.
Besides import stores, health-food stores with a fast turnover and ethnic markets are other good places to look for spices. Adventurous cooks have long known that the best way to purchase a large quantity of dry mustard to make champagne mustard, for example, is to go to a Chinese grocery and buy it by the ounce. The savings can be quite significant.
And even if you're not seeking that particular cuisine's elements, you might find the spice you need for another dish.
One caution about ethnic markets: You might have to make a leap of judgment on names and spellings. Star anise may be simply marked ``anice,'' but you can look at it and tell it's the star-shaped fruit, not the seed anise. Annatto, the reddening spice of the Caribbean, is the same thing as achiote. Another name for nigella is kalonji, also spelled kolongi.
Two excellent resources for exploring the world of spices are Jill Norman's ``The Complete Book of Spices: A Practical Guide to Spices and Aromatic Seeds'' (Viking Penguin, 1991) and the 1996 ``Savoring Spices and Herbs'' by Julie Sahni ($25, Morrow).
A worldwide range of spices
Ajowan: Popular throughout India; newly popular with American chefs. Seeds have little taste (similar to thyme) until crushed.
Allspice: Widely used in the food industry in ketchup, pickles, sausages, meat canning. Prominent in Jamaican cooking in soups, stews and curries. Adds a gentle flavor to cake, jams and fruit pies.
Anise: Although considered a cake and cookie spice in Europe, cooks in India and the Middle East add it to soups, stews and sometimes breads. Also known as aniseed.
Annatto (achiote): is to Puerto Rican cooking what chiles are to Mexican. Seeds native to Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean are the basis for the dye Indians painted on their bodies and faces. This confused the discoverers of the New World, who labeled them ``red Indians.''
Asafetida: Dried resin-like substance obtained from the rhizomes (surface roots) of several species of giant fennel. Prized in Roman cooking, now little known outside India.
Black pepper: Use whole pepper corns to flavor stocks and cooking liquids. The aroma of pepper disappears quickly, so grind peppercorns as needed. The spice used most widely in the West, and the one once traded ounce for ounce for gold.
Caraway: Popular in Central European and Jewish cooking, especially in breads, sausages, sauerkraut, cabbage, soups and cheese. Seeds are curved and tapered at the ends.
Cardamom: Seeds valued in India long before the birth of Christ. Enhances both sweet and savory. Major component of India's garam masala and curry powders. Scandinavians are the biggest European importers, for use in spiced breads, pastries and cakes.
Cassia: Sometimes called Chinese cinnamon, used interchangeably in some countries. The two are closely related, but cassia is thicker, coarser, with a less delicate taste than true cinnamon.
Celery seeds: In its first year of growth, celery is harvested as a vegetable. From the second year, seed heads are dried and the seeds beaten from them. Used in fish, egg dishes and stews, sprinkled over bread and in winter vegetable salads.
Chiles: About 200 capsicum family members vary in shapes, colors and sizes, and are used ripe, green or dried. Dried chiles are whole, crushed, flaked or ground.
Cinnamon: Use in savory dishes, such as lamb tagine; rice dishes; chocolate desserts, cakes and drinks; spice breads; fruit compotes; mulled wine.
Cloves: are unopened flower buds of a small evergreen tree native to the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, now part of Indonesia. Warm, rich flavor goes well with sweet and savory foods, such as baked hams and German spiced breads.
Coriander: Mediterranean native now cultivated worldwide. Fresh leaves are the herb cilantro, which has a completely different taste from the fruit, which is the spice. Essential in curry powder; popular in Middle Eastern minced-meat dishes, sausages and stews; used as pickling spice in America and Europe; flavors classic French vegetable dishes a la grecque.
Cumin: Use in Southwestern, Tex-Mex and Mexican savory meat dishes, such as chili. Gives a distinctive, warm flavor also to savory dishes from India, North Africa and the Middle East.
Dill: Its warm, pungent and slightly sharp flavoring is a pickle favorite. Leaves and seeds much used in Scandinavian breads, with potatoes and in seafood. Added to soups and stews in Russia and Poland; in France, the seeds are used in cakes and pastries.
Fennel: Traditional European seasoning for fish also flavors cucumbers, sauerkraut and herring. In Italy, seeds are cooked with roast pork; in Iraq, they are ground with nigella (see below) to flavor bread. Often used in Indian vegetarian dishes.
Fenugreek: Dominant flavoring in commercial curry powder. Widely grown in the Mediterranean, India, Pakistan, Morocco, France and Argentina. Used in bread in Egypt and Ethiopia.
Galangal: Rhizome used widely throughout Malaysia and Indonesia in curries and stews. Greater galangal is an essential component of Thai curry paste. Lesser galangal is used to make some bitters and liqueurs and to flavor beers in Russia and Scandinavia.
Ginger: Available fresh, dried and candied. Ground ginger is one of the three most important baking spices. Store in cool, dry place or refrigerate for one year.
Juniper: Best known for distinctive flavoring it gives to gin and other spirits. Berries grow wild here but are largely ignored in English-speaking kitchens. Scandinavians add them to red-wine marinades for roast pork; the French, to venison dishes and pates; and Alsatians and Germans, to sauerkraut.
Mace: The lacy growth, or aril, surrounding the seed that is nutmeg. Similar tastes, but mace is more refined and slightly more bitter. Use mace in bechamel and onion sauce, clear soups, shellfish stock, cheese souffles and cream cheese desserts.
Mustard: Unlike other spices, these seeds have virtually no smell. White seeds are used as pickling spice. Brown seeds are important flavoring in southern India. In medieval Europe, mustard was the one spice ordinary people could afford to flavor their bland diet. Popularity declined when Vasco de Gama's exotic spice discoveries became more widely available.
Nigella: Onion-tasting black seeds widely used in India, where dry-roasted nigella is often added to vegetables and bean dishes. Part of several classic spice mixes. Goes well with coriander and allspice and the herbs savory and thyme.
Nutmeg: Widely used in honey cakes, fruitcakes, fruit desserts, fruit punch. Goes well in stews and meat dishes. The Dutch add nutmeg to mashed potatoes, white cabbage, cauliflower, vegetable purees, macaroni and meat stew. Arabs long have added nutmeg to mutton and lamb.
Poppy: Slate-blue seeds common in Europe are creamy yellow in India and brown in Turkey. Add to dressings for noodles or rice or to garnish vegetables. In Western and Middle Eastern cooking, mainly used on breads and cakes or crushed with sweetener to make pastry fillings.
Paprika: is a kind of ground red pepper. One of the most widely cultivated spice crops today.
Saffron: The stigma of blue-violet, lily-shaped autumnal flowers; 20,000 handpicked threadlike stigmas yield 4 ounces, accounting for saffron's high cost. Key ingredient in Spanish zarzuela and paella, French bouillabaisse and Italian risotto. Long used in English saffron cakes and liqueurs, such as Chartreuse.
Sesame: In Western and Middle Eastern cooking, used to decorate and flavor breads, cakes and confections. Chinese use it as a crunchy coating; in Japan, sesame seeds are toasted and sprinkled onto rice and other dishes and used in dressings.
Star anise: One of the few spices in Chinese cookery, it's the fruit of a small evergreen in the magnolia family. Key ingredient in five-spice powder. Try with roast chicken, braised fish, scallops, clear soups, leeks and pumpkin.
Sumac: Tart, red berries of the decorative sumac bush that grows wild throughout the Middle East, dried and used whole or ground. The Lebanese and Syrians use its fruity, sour note on fish; Iraqis and Turks add it to salad; Georgians season kebabs.
Tamarind: Pod of the tamarind tree used as a souring agent in India and Southeast Asia, similar to lemon juice in the West. Good with fish and poultry dishes.
Turmeric: Like galangal, a ginger family member, this time musky and golden. Deepest color indicates best quality. Essential in curry powder and important in many South Asian dishes and Indian vegetarian cooking, especially the bean and lentil dishes. Often added to Western mustard blends.
Vanilla: Cured pod of a creeping perennial plant. Real vanilla is expensive but worth it. Artificial vanilla extract used to be made from eugenol, found in clove oil; today, it's extracted from coal-tar products and paper-mill wastes.
Wasabi: Japanese horseradish grows only in Japan on the marshy edge of cold mountain streams. Not related to Western horseradish, but it's an edible root with a fierce aroma and biting, cleansing taste. Available as paste or powder.
LENGTH: Long : 214 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: From curry powder to paprika, dill weed to chiliby CNBpeppers, spices open up worlds of flavor. color.