Tag: herbs and spices
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Hyssop
An annual herb that if you like it you will have to grow it yourself. Most places don’t sell it fresh and you are missing out if you can even get it dried.
It is very easy to grow and I keep it trimmed down to a 15cm box as it is vigorous vertically. It is at home in European, Middle-eastern and Indian cuisine but you don’t need to use a lot.
Taste/Aroma:
Hyssop has a bitter taste with hints of citrus, mint and rosemary. It pairs well with other “Mediterranean herbs” such as rosemary and it compliments tomato dishes well. Indeed I use it as I would those herbs in salads, pasta, soups, curries etc.
Flower:
Leaves:
Planting/Care:
Please see the link at the bottom of the page for when to grow this plant in my Grow It Perth calendar.
Best in full sun and it requires little water making it perfect for Perth conditions.
Related Links:
- go to all meal ingredients here
- go the Grow It Perth calendar
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White Pepper
I still can’t believe that a stone fruit (yes pepper is a stone fruit, who knew) that built empires a few hundred years ago can now be bought for next to nothing at the local supermarket!
The world’s most used spice is also my favourite, its sharp taste is different to that of chili but both are used add a spicy “hot” flavour to food. I always grind my peppercorns as I go to maintain maximum flavour and pungency.
It is often paired with salt during cooking and both are commonly supplied on every table to allow guests to add more.
I use three types of peppercorns but in this post I want to talk about white peppercorns.
I think they smell like grain and although you smell that “pepper” smell there is none of the acrid bite of black peppercorns. As well as for the taste it brings to Asian dishes such as PK Makes Nagi’s ‘Chinese Restaurant’ Chicken Satay, wihite pepper is often used in cream and white sauces so that you can not see black specks but still get the taste.
So why cook with pepper? I am not going to pretend to know why or how but pepper reacts with the flavours in the food itself and also effects our ability to perceive said flavours. Pepper is also given credit for a raft of health benefits from being a digestive to increasing your metabolism and adding to your daily fiber needs.
Pepper vine with drupes still attached:
Related Links:
- see all recipes using white peppercorns here
- see all recipes using pepper here
- see all ingredients here
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Vietnamese Coriander
Let’s face it, Coriander (also known as Cilantro) can be hard to grow in Perth conditions. It will bolt at the first sign of warm weather and dislikes full sun. So I also grow Vietnamese Coriander (also called Vietnamese Mint or Laksa Leaf) as a substitute herb and also a prized ingredient in its own right.
Taste/Aroma:
Heavily reminiscent of true Coriander but with a peppery bite. Just like true coriander, people either love or loath the taste. It goes well sprinkled on asian salads such as PK’s Thai Beef Salad or in soups and curries.
Flower:
Plant:
Harvesting Months:
- March
- April
- May
- June
Planting/Care:
Watering twice a week (less in winter) is all that is required. It is a very hardy herb and tolerates full sun to part shade and even boggy soils. It looks a bit like mint in the way it creeps out but it doesn’t send out troublesome runners and a quick prune is all that is needed to contain it.
Cuttings can be taken and will easily propagate in a dish of water (thanks Eira Clapton for the tip).
Related Links:
- go to all ingredients
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Ben’s Magic Chicken Dry Rub
Ben’s latest concoction is a magic dry rub for use on chicken. I tasted the butterflied chicken he used it on (recipe to come) and it was mouth-watering and oh so smokey.
All you have to do is take:
- Equal parts salt, sugar and garlic powder, maybe 2 Tbsp each.
- Smoked paprika (sweet works well too) and chilli to taste.
- A dash of mustard powder.
- A good grind of black pepper.
Combine in a shaker and mix well.
Here is PK using it on some chicken pieces. Don’t turn you your back when cooking with this rub. The sugar can easily burn!
Cheers,
Ben
Here are some more posts bt Ben and chicken recipes :
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Homemade Jalapeno Chilli Powder
Make your own chilli powder using your homegrown chilis. You can mix different chilli types together to get the heat you like or stick with one type as I have here. I used a mixture of green and red jalapenos for a medium heat level.
Simply slice the chilis, pop them into a dehydrator and turn it on low. You will know they are ready when they lose all of their sponginess and feel brittle.
Edit: I bought a mesh bag arrangement in 2020 that lets me dry chillies in the sun during the dry months.
Then add everything to your dry mixer and pulse in short bursts until you get the consistency you like.
Stored in a glass jar or plastic container along with a silica sachet, it should last for quite sometime.
Enjoy,
PK
Check out some more chilli posts and other herbs and spices:
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Chicken Dry Rub #1
This is the first attempt at a dry rub for roast chicken.
I am pretty pleased with the taste and just look at the colours. 🙂
Please see PK’s Dry Rub Split Roast Chicken where I tested it out for the first time.
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp ground rock salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black peppercorns
- 1 tsp ground paprika (I used smoked)
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp kashmiri chili powder
- 1/4 tsp tumeric powder
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp beetroot powder (for colour, I make my own here)
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder
Steps:
- Bring all the ingredients together.
- Get distracted by how amazing it looks and smells.
- Mix everything together.
- Rub it all over the chicken including the cavity.
Enjoy,
PK
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- Ingredients:
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Dagarful (Parmotrema perlatum)
Dagarful, also known as Dagar Phool, Black Stone Flower or Kalpasi, is a lichen used in Indian cuisine. It has a flavour similar to cinnamon and you can use that as a substitute if you have to.
I have to agree with Rick Stein though, it is transformational and brings something to curries that I can’t quite put my finger on. In Australia it really isn’t hard to source and it is so worth the effort.
Give it a try,
PK
Links:
- see more dagarful posts here
- go to all ingredients
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Cardamom Green
Most of us have used or eaten the ground powder, seeds or pods of Cardamon , perhaps without knowing so. Also called Cardamon or Cardamum it is an essential spice especially in Indian, Middle Eastern and South East Asian cuisine.
There are two types, large brown pods and small green pods, from two different plants. The green pods are the most commonly used in the modern era and are from South East Asia.
Raw, I get an earthy grassy then menthol flavour.
The seeds:
Links:
- see more green cardamon posts here
- go to all ingredients
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Lemongrass
I first learnt about this flavoursome member of the grass family when I started cooking the Thai classic soup, Tom Yum Goong. I have been growing it ever since for use in sauces, soups, salads and fish cakes.
The plant itself looks and smells amazing and is a natural mosquito repellent to boot :).
Taste/Aroma:
Lemongrass has a mild citrus taste and freshly cut stalks smell (to me anyway) like citrus, roses and herbs.
The stalks are particularly fibrous and are in this respect unpleasant to eat unless you remove the outer few layers and then the top two thirds of the stalk.
You then finely dice, grate or crush the bottom whiter part.
You can of course bend or bruise the whole stalk and use it to flavour soups and sauces, removing the stalk before serving.
Stalks:
Plant:
Harvesting Months:
- All months
Planting/Care:
It is really easy to grow and although you can buy plants from the nursery it is just a easy to get a few stalks with roots attached and plant them. Do this around November if possible. Mine is in the ground but it will do you proud in a pot too.
One way to harvest lemon grass is to pull sharply from the base. You are likely to get some roots and this will help it last longer. I have it on good authority that the Malay way is to cut the base of a stalk with a knife. New stalks will then grow from the cut.
Either way you will get new stalks growing for a continual harvest.
Regrowth if you use a knife instead:
Related Links:
- see more lemongrass posts here
- go to all meal ingredients
- go the Grow It Perth calendar
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Bish Is Rocketing Along
Bish writes:
I am a persistent casual gardener, in that I keep trying but due to work and life I don’t spend as much time as I should on maintenance and the like. My garden’s nothing like Ben’s! Anyway, now that the team are testing out some of the Mr Fothergill’s planters, I thought I’d chip in with my own story about using their products.
I had a burst of energy the other day and decided that I would clean up the little herb beds that we have out the back. These are really productive little raised beds, and I think because we have good drainage and they get the morning sun, they are especially so in winter. Anyway, I removed a bunch of mint, an old sage plant that was starting to struggle (after three years of providing us with plenty of leaves for burnt sage butter, yum), an old thyme plant and some old oregano stragglers. I ended up still having a bunch of space left in one of them.
I had started to organise my seed collection (I usually let one of my crop go to seed so that I have some seeds to play with next time) I found a five year old packet of Mr Fothergill’s seeds, this one containing Rocket. I figured after that long these were probably not too viable, so I just scattered the seeds across the empty space in my herb bed and raked it through just to cover the seeds, and thought no more about it.
As you can see in the picture, here we are a few weeks later and pretty much all of them have germinated and I am going to be faced with a massive oversupply of Rocket in the near future, so looks like we’ll be making pesto or something with it all! It certainly says something about the viability of seeds and how they are able to persist in many situations – and the way they’re treated by Mr. Fothergill’s!I’ll keep an eye out for some good pesto recipes but if anyone else knows some please send them in!
Bish
Related Links:
- see more of Bish’s posts here
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