Food sustains life,
Spice breathes air into that food.
Our cooking has evolved from roasting meats in a fire pit to complex multi layered recipes of modern day. During this evolution and development of several cooking techniques spices began to and still occupy the most critical dimension to cook flavorful food.
When I say spice it is very often misconstrued to be something that is very hot and destined to blow your head off with heat and tears rolling down the cheeks, not to mention the gastrointestinal wars. Do not forget that chilies are vegetables and not spices. Understanding the interplay between spices is simple and even more so very enjoyable. Three cardamom seeds steeped in hot water with tea leaves is the only difference needed to experience a Masala Chai over a regular black tea. A teaspoon of five black pepper seeds boiled with a fistful of tamarind and a tablespoon of jaggery will allow you to taste sweet, sour and intense and hot spice at the same time in Rasam.
I intend to narrate a story of spices through spice blends that will open new doors of taste in your kitchen and allow you to experience food that ranges from ‘melt in your mouth’ to ‘melts your tongue’.
*MELT is a collaborative contrivance of bakebrewandstew and thehangrydinosour, two people who are devout food and ingredient nerds.
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