I’ve almost always used the dried version and so haven’t had the opportunity, till recently to truly get a whiff of the buttery, caramel, chocolate notes the aidan pod has trapped within it. A winged pod, with 2 hard, inedible and 2 soft, edible wings, it is a core ingredient in my mother’s pepper soup....
Yes. Pepper fruit cured. I knew I wanted to use it for the way I thought the spicy seeds would cut the chewy fish and add aroma. My desire would be to cure white, local fish but this is a good place to begin. And I’m glad to say it worked. Take some processed pepper...
I’ve written about Nutmeg before, about discovering it shelled, walled in Dubai. And still there’s more. And Zanzibar served it up, on a Spice Farm tour. Here, I saw the entire nutmeg fruit – nut, shell, mace and all. Our tour guide, Ramadan shared the fruit and more with us. That nutmeg comes ‘as a fruit’...
I’m trying to eat more than carrot cake, delicious as my version of it is – adapted from food52 and topped with the same lemony cream cheese frosting as goes on my red velvet cake. The last time I made some Carrot cake, on Boxing Day. If you didn’t know the origins of Boxing day...
A few mornings ago, I made some delicious golden turmeric milk. Thank you @afolakea. Turmeric has so many glowing nutritional qualities – from being an awesome antioxidant to boosting immune health and on and on and on. I believe. I heated milk with cloves, green cardamom, grated fresh turmeric, fresh ginger, brown sugar and almonds....
The rhizomes – small tubers – of Turmeric remind me of Jerusalem artichokes and ginger at the same time, smaller though. There are a few differences I’ve observed – Difference 1 – Anatomy The skin has more ribs than that of ginger and the rhizomes are generally smaller in size. Difference 2 – Colour We...
From journeys to Dubai souks, to cupboards in my kitchen, many spices are resident in my kitchen. From nutmeg to saffron and fragrant tea mixes, full of rose and jasmine. There are the thickest shavings of dried garlic, carob pods that hold ‘frozen’ glistening pools of flavor, dried galingale – I’ve never seen that before,...
I love and use ginger in a variety of ways. Fresh I always have fresh ginger at home. It is perfect for both sweet and savoury preparations. For sweet, I’ve explored a number of recipes – Confit, Jam, Candy. For savoury, all you need is a bit grated in stirfries and sauces, some pounded whole...
Today, I have three stories & recipes to share on and with Agbalumo – Success, A’yt with cake and outright ‘Fail’. Here’s to good things second 😉 This was a hit. Hit. Big hit. I wondered if you could go savoury with Agbalumo. A lot of the experimentation I’ve done has been geared towards sweet. This...