Spices

Living up to my blog name "Spice"
Living up to my blog name "Spice"

“I ran down to your place this morning and stole juniper berries from your kitchen—couldn’t find them anywhere on our way or earlier grocery travels yesterday.” Yikes, I thought when I received this message from Lynn when we were in Norway. Long overdue for a cleanup, my spice cupboard was a bit of an embarrassment. Last week in a rare burst of housecleaning energy, I tackled the job. “A good thing” as Martha would say. Three good things actually—a tidy drawer, a blog source and a new recipe.

I know what you’re thinking. “No wonder she calls herself Spice. That’s a crazy number of tins, jars and packets in that spice drawer!”

Uh-huh. What’s more is there is more—my various salts and peppers couldn’t be crowded into the spice cupboard so I’ve moved them elsewhere.

Sorting and cleaning, I realized how our travel has influenced my collection of spices.

Rose Petal Powder from the wondrous world of spices at Kalustyan’s in New York, purchased in May when we visited Myra and Alan.

Marfa Shag, “an herbal smoke blend” of rose petals, damiana, mullen and chamomile—is this a tea? From Penzey’s in Palm Springs: Chipotle Pepper, Epazote and Mahlab. What’s Mahlab I wondered. A powder made from the rock-hard pits of the Mediterranean’s St. Lucy’s cherry. Serious Eats says, “When mahlab first hits your tongue it tastes a bit like cherries, a bit like roses, and a bit like almonds. There’s a hint of vanilla and something quite floral…It’s a regal spice that adds majesty to sweets, an excellent mystery ingredient that contributes a whole palette of flavors without dominating an end result.”

I found a packet of Mastic from Greece, purchased in 2010, reminding me of the mastic ice cream we made for dessert for the first dinner we cooked for Teresa and Paul.

A tin of Stevia from Sicily, unopened. A dinner guest once told me she substitutes it for sugar for her son Matthew. That kid is brilliant, so…

From The Silk Road Spice Merchant there’s a jar of Turkish Baharat purchased in Seattle, likely soon after we returned from Oman. It’s an Arabic blend of black pepper, paprika, cumin, coriander, cloves, mint, rose petals, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom. (I know you’re supposed to toss spices out after a year—doesn’t happen in our household.)

Even older is a French-green tin of Quatre Épices that I bought in Toronto. We haven’t been there for six years! Perfect for pork dishes is this mix of ground white pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.

What grand memories of hiking in Utah when I found a slickrock-coloured packet of Backbone Girls Chimayo Chile Powder.

Savoury from my mother’s garden.

But what astonished me most was all the fennel in that drawer. A tin of fennel seeds and a packet of fennel pollen purchased locally. Three tins of Finocchietto Selvetica and another of Fioride Finocchietto—wild fennel seeds, leaves and pollen purchased at Gli Aromi in southeastern Sicily, an herb farm where 200 different kinds of aromatic and medicinal plants are grown and shipped worldwide. “31 OTT. 2019” read the pale green label on one tin.

Magellan can expect to have fresh-smelling breath in 2020 because he’ll be eating a lot of fennel seeded/powdered dishes. Its principal flavour compound is trans-anethole, which The Flavor Thesaurus says is thirteen times sweeter weight-for-weight than table sugar. Luckily fennel is used in savoury and sweet recipes in almost every country’s cuisine. My favourite Italian meatball recipe calls for fennel seeds. Greek cookbook author Aglaia Kremezi has a recipe for Crisp Parsley and Fennel Bread Rings that I’ll be trying because it uses a whopping tablespoon of fennel seeds. Vij, a renowned Indian chef in Vancouver, has a recipe for Candied Walnuts that includes fennel seeds, cayenne and bonus!—ajwain, an unopened jar of spice in the first row of my cupboard.

Recipe adaptations to deplete my store of Finocchietto Selvetica must be the priority, as you can well see.

Here’s where I started.

My favourite restaurant in our city is Burdock & Co, owned by chef Andrea Carlson, who this autumn published her first cookbook. When we returned from Norway, Lynn gifted me Burdock & Co Poetic Recipes Inspired by Ocean, Land & Air for my birthday. It’s a treasure. Andrea’s story, the photographs and her recipes—six of them call for fennel! Immediately I went to Warm Ricotta, Caramelized Persimmons, Honeycomb. I was in luck. Our local farmers’ market had fresh persimmons and honeycomb. While Andrea’s recipe calls only for fennel fronds and flowers not fennel seeds, I know she would cheer my adaptation, which also uses honey instead of caramelizing sugar. “…spontaneity colours all that she does in the kitchen. Rather than revisiting past recipes, Carlson prefers to create dishes on the fly—scrawling down details on scraps of paper, led by the product at hand,” writes Laura Brehaut in her National Post review of Andrea’s cooking.

I plan to serve Warm Fennel-Spiced Persimmons, Ricotta & Honeycomb for dessert but also for breakfast—maybe an entire dinner party will be planned around my most abundant spice. You could help—send me your favourite fennel spice recipes!

Warm Fennel-Spiced Persimmons, Ricotta & Honeycomb

Adapted from Andrea Carlson's recipe in Burdock &Co, I have added fennel seeds to the persimmons and unlike Andrea, opted for store-bought ricotta instead of making my own; Scardillo makes a traditional Italian ricotta with a nice texture. Be sure to buy Fuyu persimmons, which can be eaten firm and crisp; the Hachiya variety is too soft. (The BC Fuyu persimmons are small; as you can see in our photo, I used five slices per serving.) Instead of crystallzing a small amount of sugar as per Andrea's recipe, I substituted honey. I've made it for two, Andrea's recipe is for four and it could easily be multiplied for six if you use a large pan.
Prep Time8 minutes
Cook Time2 minutes
Total Time10 minutes
Servings: 2
Author: Spice

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe Fuyu persimmons each sliced into three rounds
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 3/8 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta with an optional dash of fennel powder if you have it
  • 2 one-inch chunks of honeycomb
  • Fennel fronds for garnishing

Instructions

  • Gently heat the ricotta (and fennel powder if using) in a small non-stick saucepan on low heat.
  • In a medium frypan, toast the fennel seeds, remove and chop finely or crush with a mortar and pestle. In the same pan, warm the honey over medium heat. Add the persimmon slices, sprinkle with the fennel seeds and gently swirl in the honey for about a minute. Remove and divide among two plates.
  • Spoon the ricotta on top of half of the permissions. (You don't want the ricotta to cover the lovely design of the persimmons.)
  • Put a piece of honeycomb on the plate. Decorate the persimmons/ricotta with a scattering of sprigs of fennel fronds.
  • Near Christmas, a slice of stollen is a complementary accompaniment to this dish at breakfast time.

 

Navigation

Brehaut, Laura. “It’s the essence of cooking.” National Post. November 23, 2019. “Vancouver-based chef Andrea Carlson insists spontaneity is at the heart of Burdock & Co,” writes Laura, who includes the original recipe from Andrea’s book.

Carlson, Andrea with Clea McDougall. Burdock & Co Poetic Recipes Inspired by Ocean, Land & Air. Canada: Appetite by Random House, 2019. Andrea’s first cookbook and a beauty it is.

Gli Aromi, if you happen to be in Sicily and want fennel…

Sargent, Nikki. The Flavor Thesaurus. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2010. This well-worn guidebook, my spice consultant in residence, sits on our countertop awaiting its regular openings.

8 Responses

  1. Fascinating.

    So much about spices is so intriguing.

    Our son-in-law Farhan has introduced our family to a whole world of new (to us) spices; from his culture and native geography.

    We have also recently rediscovered Orange Peko tea, which, although not a spice; also seems to stimulate and provoke ..

    Thank you.

    Wade

    1. Lucky you to have Farhan doing some cooking. I’ve been craving Pakoras (spices=coriander, cumin, turmeric and mango powder) but taking out the deep-fat fryer at this time of year when we’re already overloaded with calories has prevented me, til I read your comment…

  2. JEALOUS I am not in YVR right now to partake in the year of fennel – and those persimmons look fab! Una in Saskatoon does a great ricotta/honey (or is it maple syrup?) dip – a favourite for Brandy and I.

  3. Hi Spice! Having just recently returned from Jordan and Israel, I became captivated with ZA’ATAR, an Arabic spice blend that is unlike anything I have every tasted before. I am still using it on something everyday now that I am home!

    1. Do you remember the magazine Metropolitan Home? My favourite use for za’atar comes from it: Grilled Lamb Chops with Tomato, Onion and Sumac Salad served with Grilled Ciabatta with Za’atar. Thanks—now I know what’s for dinner one night for this week.

  4. 5 stars
    To coin a Phrase “Variety is the Spice of Life”

    The nice thing about spice is the ease of travelling with them, want a reminder of a different region of the world, get a small jar of your favourite flavour from your trip and home it goes, perfect.
    Thinking back through history, I doubt if most spices go bad, think of the sailing ships of Magellan and how long they would be at sea before getting to home port, sometime more than a year I am sure.

    Truly a unique way to change any meal is the addition of one or more different spices.

    Cheers,

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