What’s New at Herbie’s?
It’s been an exciting time for new discoveries, and we’re delighted to bring you Dagar Phool, an exotic fungus also known as Black Stone Flower, Dagarful, or Dagar da Phool, used in Indian foods. Have you ever been to a restaurant and thought, “This tastes so good, why can’t I achieve this flavour at home?” If so, you have probably experienced dagar phool, cleverly incorporated into the chef’s spice mixtures. Whilst, at this stage, we are not making any spice blends with it, we are having great fun playing with this great flavour.
Some of you will remember when we had Lemon thyme in our range, until the sad day when our farmer moved to the beach, to life a life in and out of the surf. Happy days are here again, as we have found a new supplier of this lovely, and so popular, herb. Australian-grown, too!
Selim pepper is another new one, and possibly the rarest spice we have sourced for some time, it’s bound to please the pepper fans. It also goes by the names; African pepper, Ethiopian pepper, Grains of Selim, Guinea pepper, kimba pepper, negro pepper and Senegal pepper. This little pod, about the same size as a long pepper, comes to us from Western Africa and this pepper is generally used in the same way as black pepper, Sichuan pepper or grains of paradise. Like Sichuan pepper, most of the camphor-like, numbing, medicinal flavor is in the pod itself and the seeds actually have very little flavor by comparison. For this reason the whole or ground pod is most commonly added to cooking to get the most out of the taste. Although Selim pepper tastes quite medicinal on its own, when combined with rich, gamey or very fatty ingredients, it has the effect of cutting the rich, cloying flavors of these foods.
As well as enjoying the flavours of your favourite spices added to everyday meals, Have some fun experimenting with these new varieties this autumn.