NEWSLETTER: Autumn 2002
- Abundant source of antioxidants
- A word about curry pastes
- Herbie visits Vietnam
- Spice Discovery Tour to India - 2003
Abundant source of antioxidants
Those of us who have discovered the good feelings generated by a meal with delicious herbaceous flavours may be delighted by recent findings from researchers with the US Department of Agriculture. They have found that herbs, besides making food tastier, are "an abundant source of antioxidants and could provide potential anticancer benefits when supplementing a balanced diet." On a per gram fresh weight basis, oregano and other herbs ranked even higher in antioxidant activity than fruits and vegetables. Oregano is the star of the herbs in this respect. To quote again: "oregano has 42 times more antioxidant activity than apples, 30 times more than potatoes, 12 times more than oranges, and 4 times more than blueberries. For example, one tablespoon of fresh oregano contains the same antioxidant activity as one medium-sized apple." Now isn't that good news for the pizza-lovers?
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A word about curry pastes
A word about curry pastes. What makes something wet? Water! To quote the famous Pat Chapman of the Curry Club, "Mix the spices with water to make a paste. Add the paste …" Many people have become used to the idea of curry pastes, which they can buy in jars with the feeling they are getting something very convenient. Dry spice mixes can be used in just the same way. If you particularly want a curry paste, use this method: lightly fry some finely chopped onion and garlic in oil, add the curry powder of your choice, add water to make a paste. You can also add some tomato paste to make it richer and more brightly coloured. For an extra fresh flavour, add chopped fresh coriander or curry leaves, and use a little tamarind water, which is made by soaking a piece of tamarind in water and straining it off. Keep refrigerated.
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Recently we left Herbie's in the capable hands of our wonderful staff, and took off to Vietnam where we visited the cassia forests in the north-west of the country. We had made contact with a cassia trader in Hanoi, who generously put his driver, two English-speaking staff and cassia-buying expert (his wife) at our disposal for a trip inland. Although the drive took about five hours, involving lunch, dinner, overnight stay and breakfast before the final hour's driving to a village by the Red River, the distance covered was not all that great, and could have been covered on Australian roads in about two hours! At the point where the car could go no further, we transferred to the pillions of four hired trail bikes, where we clung for dear life to our drivers as they rode down a steep, slippery embankment to the bank of the river. A flat-bottomed steel barge ferried us across, after which there was a ten-kilometer ride up and down steep hills and past incredibly beautiful peaceful scenes of lakes and rice paddies, finally bringing us to the tiny village where the cassia farmers live.
After an hour or so sipping green tea and making translated conversation with these charming and hospitable folk, we took to the bikes again to go out to the forests. The cassia trees are harvested when they are just under eight years old, by which time they are about twelve metres high. The tree is basically ring-barked to remove large curls of bark about the length and diameter of an adult fore-arm. The tree is felled, and every branch and twig is stripped of its bark. Because the entire tree is harvested, (the timber being used for building), it's important that replanting is done constantly, and we were surprised to see people waddling along on their haunches, collecting seeds from the forest floor. They explained that seeds that have been eaten by birds, "processed" in the bird and returned to the ground, have a more successful germination rate.
It would be lovely if we could say that the very air was redolent with the scent of cassia, however the smell of smoke (both tobacco and fire) and our drivers' hair oil drowned out all else! It is easy to see how people get confused about cassia and cinnamon, because even the cassia growers refer it as cinnamon. The difference between the two is firstly that cinnamon and cassia trees, though related, are different trees. Secondly, the aroma of cinnamon is delicate, sweet and subtle, and it's virtually impossible to use too much in your cooking. Cassia, on the other hand, is quite hot if you chew on a piece of bark, and its sweet fragrance is more aromatic and more immediate in its effect - use too much (as in cinnamon chewing gum in the States) and there is a distinctly hot, slightly unpleasant, overtone. Cassia is known as cinnamon in North America, and it is also referred to as "Baker's cinnamon" because of its popularity in sweet pastries, donuts and buns. Thirdly, the best cinnamon is a very thin underneath layer of bark from a quite young piece of branch, while cassia is the complete thickness of bark from the fully-grown tree.
Back home and away from those wonderful Vietnamese beefy, noodle-filled bowls of broth, we thought we fancied some potatoes fried with Panch Phora - a family favourite. Imagine our dismay to find that we were out of Panch Phora! (Like plumbers with dripping taps, we constantly find ourselves out of spices at home.) We resorted to the Rasam Mix and found that we had made an absolutely perfect dry potato curry. The potatoes were peeled, chopped and par-boiled, then dried in kitchen towel. Oil was heated in the pan, a good shake of Rasam Mix - about a tablespoon for four potatoes - then the potatoes were added and stirred around until they were coated and cooked through. Delicious!
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Finally, the 2003 Spice Tour is locked into place as much as is possible, and bookings are already in for about half the available spaces. Now, we don't want to disappoint you in any way, so here's a pragmatic picture of what to expect. You must bear in mind that India, metaphorically speaking, has one foot in the 21st century and the other somewhere in the mists of time! Some of the hotels we have booked are up with the best in the world. The Mount Lavinia, a famous colonial hotel overlooking the ocean on the outskirts of Colombo, was used in the film "Bridge over the River Kwai," and is full of history and atmosphere. Naturally, when bookings are made this far in advance, there may be a few unavoidable changes when the time comes … but in essence, the tour will be as we've set it out in the Spice tour page on our website.
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Here's a thought to leave you with … try Balmain-Rozelle Spice or Chermoula in your hash-browns, and Cajun mixed with the mince in your sausage rolls. How about fried rice made with Persian Spice, Barberries and Turkish Spearmint instead of your usual Asian flavours? Even the most every-day meal can be looked at from a slightly different angle. Dare to be different!
