NEWSLETTER: Winter 2000
We are proud to tell you that since our last Newsletter, Herbie's has been awarded one of the prestigious Jaguar Awards for Excellence, in association with Australian Gourmet Traveller. We were winners in the "Innovation in Produce" category, and it is a wonderful feeling to have our consistency and dedication to quality recognized and appreciated. The awards were presented at a cocktail party featuring the produce of winners, and we were proud to be in the company of other achievers from all over Australia. If you are able to visit the shop, you will see our "cat" identical to the one that used to adorn the bonnet of those beautiful Jaguar cars, caught gracefully mid-leap on our counter.
It's time once again to enjoy wonderful warming, comforting, winter stews and casseroles. Our favourite of the week is a chicken stew, having rolled the pieces of chicken in Berbere prior to browning them. We add a blob of tomato paste, a few veges depending on what's in the house at the time, and liquid to cover, and transfer it to the oven for half an hour or until the chicken and vegetables are cooked. Served with a sweet potato mash, rice, or any other carbohydrate to soak up the gravy, it's great!
We have reviewed our range of gift kits. It seemed, upon consideration, that the Hot and Spicy Kit, although popular as it is, is probably not really hot enough for the chilli addict. So we've made a Seriously Chilli Kit containing our Vindaloo Curry Powder, Long Chillies, Harissa Paste Mix , Habanero Chilli and freeze-dried Green Chilli Flakes, and we're sure it will satisfy the most serious chilli lover!
To fill the other end of the void caused by the loss of the original Hot and Spicy, we've put together a new Quick and Tasty Kit, which contains Sambar Powder, Jamaican Jerk Seasoning, Cajun Spice, Chermoula Spice, Berbere and Tasty Meat Sprinkle. With the usual ingredients for your family meal, these products will deliver a really flavourful result without having to use any complicated recipes. These mixes include some of the more unusual spice blends, which are some of our personal favourites. As our blends don't contain any starches or fillers, each one is full of spicy (but not necessarily hot) flavour, and we assure you that this kit will live up to its name!
You might have noticed the alarming increase in the cost of green cardamom pods and seeds. There is a world shortage at the moment, owing to crop losses caused by last year's hurricane in Guatemala. We will try to soften the blow to you by reducing the weight of the packs slightly, so that the retail price stays within the realms of reason. Similar bad news has hit the vanilla supply, and we have had to change our source of supply over the last few months. We are now able to source the excellent Mexican "Gourmet Grade" vanilla beans again, but at almost twice the price that they were before the disastrous floods last year. So you will have the choice of the usual 12 gram pack containing the-best-of-the-rest vanilla beans (Indonesian "Bourbon" grade), and a pack containing one Mexican vanilla bean for those times when you want the very best.
What's new at Herbie's? We have made two Thai-style curry mixes, one green and one red. They both have simple recipes on the back of the pack, which of course can be expanded upon to suit your taste. For example, change the protein from fish to chicken or beef, or add any other vegetables you wish. They are quick and authentic-tasting, but remember that where the recipe calls for "shrimp powder", it is not the same as "shrimp paste". If you have a jar of the paste lurking in the back of your fridge (as many of us do!) use one quarter of the quantity of shrimp powder in the recipe.
The itinerary for the 2001 trip to India has been finalised, and you'll find details on our website http://www.herbies.com.au/tour.html. We're leaving a little later in the year this time, and will be there on the occasion of India's National Day (co-incidentally the same day as Australia Day), so we can share the colour and excitement of the public holiday. Nobody does festivals as well or as noisily as the Indians do! We're very excited about doing the trip again . each succeeding one just seems to get better.
We have noticed that there is often confusion in people's minds about the difference between cinnamon bark and cinnamon quills. Imagine taking a chunk of bark off a quite mature tree, so that your piece of bark is about 1 centimetre thick. That is called cinnamon bark, and when it's ground, it has some cinnamon flavour, suitable for certain meat dishes, but not the delicate sweetness you would want for cakes and puddings. On the other hand, imagine cutting a young branch no bigger in diameter than a broom handle, and scraping off the soft outer layer of bark to reveal the pale brown, succulent inner layer. With great skill, you remove that tender inside bark, which becomes a cinnamon quill when rolled. When it is ground, it is the good quality cinnamon for your sweet cooking.
So what about Dutch cinnamon, baker's cinnamon, or the cinnamon used in chewing gum and sweets in the United States? They are all in fact cassia, which is a botanical "cousin" to cinnamon. It is available in a curl of bark, at first glance like cinnamon quill, but instead of being fragile and papery, it is a stronger and thicker bark, which is difficult to break. When it is ground, cassia bark is as fine as talcum powder, and it has a sweeter, more penetrating aroma than cinnamon, which is why it's so popular with bakers for use in sweet buns and donuts. We've tasted some cute little candy "cinnamon" hearts from New York, which were unfortunately so heavily flavoured with cassia that there was an unpleasant burning sharpness about them . a perfect argument for moderation in the use of this spice! What often works well is a combination of cassia and cinnamon for a fragrant but still warm and gentle influence.
If you have access to our website at www.herbies.com.au, you will have noticed our updated site with a lot more information as well as on-line ordering. For easier everyday reference, we have compiled the information about all the spices, along with several recipes, into a little booklet, which is available for $5.00. Although it is not THE BOOK, of course, (which will be out later this year and will be more comprehensive than any herb and spice book we've seen to date), it is a useful guide and particularly helpful for anyone doing a school project on spices.
Once again, happy spicing!
HERBIE & LIZ
It's time once again to enjoy wonderful warming, comforting, winter stews and casseroles. Our favourite of the week is a chicken stew, having rolled the pieces of chicken in Berbere prior to browning them. We add a blob of tomato paste, a few veges depending on what's in the house at the time, and liquid to cover, and transfer it to the oven for half an hour or until the chicken and vegetables are cooked. Served with a sweet potato mash, rice, or any other carbohydrate to soak up the gravy, it's great!
We have reviewed our range of gift kits. It seemed, upon consideration, that the Hot and Spicy Kit, although popular as it is, is probably not really hot enough for the chilli addict. So we've made a Seriously Chilli Kit containing our Vindaloo Curry Powder, Long Chillies, Harissa Paste Mix , Habanero Chilli and freeze-dried Green Chilli Flakes, and we're sure it will satisfy the most serious chilli lover!
To fill the other end of the void caused by the loss of the original Hot and Spicy, we've put together a new Quick and Tasty Kit, which contains Sambar Powder, Jamaican Jerk Seasoning, Cajun Spice, Chermoula Spice, Berbere and Tasty Meat Sprinkle. With the usual ingredients for your family meal, these products will deliver a really flavourful result without having to use any complicated recipes. These mixes include some of the more unusual spice blends, which are some of our personal favourites. As our blends don't contain any starches or fillers, each one is full of spicy (but not necessarily hot) flavour, and we assure you that this kit will live up to its name!
You might have noticed the alarming increase in the cost of green cardamom pods and seeds. There is a world shortage at the moment, owing to crop losses caused by last year's hurricane in Guatemala. We will try to soften the blow to you by reducing the weight of the packs slightly, so that the retail price stays within the realms of reason. Similar bad news has hit the vanilla supply, and we have had to change our source of supply over the last few months. We are now able to source the excellent Mexican "Gourmet Grade" vanilla beans again, but at almost twice the price that they were before the disastrous floods last year. So you will have the choice of the usual 12 gram pack containing the-best-of-the-rest vanilla beans (Indonesian "Bourbon" grade), and a pack containing one Mexican vanilla bean for those times when you want the very best.
What's new at Herbie's? We have made two Thai-style curry mixes, one green and one red. They both have simple recipes on the back of the pack, which of course can be expanded upon to suit your taste. For example, change the protein from fish to chicken or beef, or add any other vegetables you wish. They are quick and authentic-tasting, but remember that where the recipe calls for "shrimp powder", it is not the same as "shrimp paste". If you have a jar of the paste lurking in the back of your fridge (as many of us do!) use one quarter of the quantity of shrimp powder in the recipe.
The itinerary for the 2001 trip to India has been finalised, and you'll find details on our website http://www.herbies.com.au/tour.html. We're leaving a little later in the year this time, and will be there on the occasion of India's National Day (co-incidentally the same day as Australia Day), so we can share the colour and excitement of the public holiday. Nobody does festivals as well or as noisily as the Indians do! We're very excited about doing the trip again . each succeeding one just seems to get better.
We have noticed that there is often confusion in people's minds about the difference between cinnamon bark and cinnamon quills. Imagine taking a chunk of bark off a quite mature tree, so that your piece of bark is about 1 centimetre thick. That is called cinnamon bark, and when it's ground, it has some cinnamon flavour, suitable for certain meat dishes, but not the delicate sweetness you would want for cakes and puddings. On the other hand, imagine cutting a young branch no bigger in diameter than a broom handle, and scraping off the soft outer layer of bark to reveal the pale brown, succulent inner layer. With great skill, you remove that tender inside bark, which becomes a cinnamon quill when rolled. When it is ground, it is the good quality cinnamon for your sweet cooking.
So what about Dutch cinnamon, baker's cinnamon, or the cinnamon used in chewing gum and sweets in the United States? They are all in fact cassia, which is a botanical "cousin" to cinnamon. It is available in a curl of bark, at first glance like cinnamon quill, but instead of being fragile and papery, it is a stronger and thicker bark, which is difficult to break. When it is ground, cassia bark is as fine as talcum powder, and it has a sweeter, more penetrating aroma than cinnamon, which is why it's so popular with bakers for use in sweet buns and donuts. We've tasted some cute little candy "cinnamon" hearts from New York, which were unfortunately so heavily flavoured with cassia that there was an unpleasant burning sharpness about them . a perfect argument for moderation in the use of this spice! What often works well is a combination of cassia and cinnamon for a fragrant but still warm and gentle influence.
If you have access to our website at www.herbies.com.au, you will have noticed our updated site with a lot more information as well as on-line ordering. For easier everyday reference, we have compiled the information about all the spices, along with several recipes, into a little booklet, which is available for $5.00. Although it is not THE BOOK, of course, (which will be out later this year and will be more comprehensive than any herb and spice book we've seen to date), it is a useful guide and particularly helpful for anyone doing a school project on spices.
Once again, happy spicing!
HERBIE & LIZ
