It’s the time of year when many shops are offering special Christmas deals and doing special Christmas packages of goods. We are just continuing to do what we do best supplying you with the best herbs and spices in the country. Rather than expend huge marketing energy on attracting one-off gift buyers at this time of year, we’d rather save the Christmas gifts for our loyal customers. So we’re going to include an extra pack of spices free with any mail order before Christmas, as a gesture of our appreciation to you. Each gift kit ordered before Christmas will be sent to you with a free gift card and envelope. For “in person” shoppers who are on our mailing list, just bring this newsletter with you to take advantage of the Christmas offer.
Our trading hours over Christmas will be our normal hours every day except public holidays and New Year’s Eve — that is:
Friday 24th December Christmas Eve 10:00am to 5:00pm
Wednesday 29th December 10:00am to 6:00pm
Thursday 30th December 10:00am to 6:00pm
Friday 31st December 10:00am to 2:00pm
Re-opening Tuesday 4th January 10:00am to 6:00pm for another year of pleasing our customers!
We’ve been asked many times how to make a basic curry paste. Well, it’s easy — in a small bowl mix together the following: 2 tablespoons of any Herbie’s curry powder, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon tomato paste and _tablespoon water. Presto, it’s a curry paste! For a slightly more splendid version, brown the curry powder for a minute or two in a small pan, stirring so it doesn’t burn. Add the oil, then a tablespoon of finely chopped onion, a crushed clove of garlic, a few curry leaves, and cook another minute or two. Keep stirring frequently. Then add the tomato paste and enough water to bring it to the paste consistency you want. You can store this in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Egged on by many of our customers, we’ve had a Herbie’s Spices apron made. A tasteful non-crush fabric the colour of the background of our label bears the Herbie’s logo and a beautiful stitched star anise about the size of a saucer. Under the star, the stitching declares (what else??) “COOKING STAR”. We’re delighted with the result, and the retail price is a reasonable $25.95, which is the same price as our cheerful chilli apron. (Postage $5.00 extra.)
We love to get inspiration from our customers, and a chance remark about a need for an engagement gift brought about our new Aphrodisiac Kit! We had great fun putting the recipes for this one together…everyone knows that virtually all spices are aphrodisiacs, and they’ve been teamed with other sensual and sexy foods such as oysters, figs and artichokes for the ultimate in seductive sensations.
Departing from the cheerful corrugated cardboard boxes used for the other kits, this one is in a slinky, black-satin-smooth box tied with a gold, heart-studded ribbon. Simply too good to save for Valentine’s Day, it’s perfect for hen’s nights, anniversaries, and any special occasion. For a bit of a preview, here’s one of the recipes from the kit…
BRUSCHETTA WITH PUREE OF ARTICHOKES
Serves 2
There’s been great demand for a Barbecue Kit as well, so naturally we’ve obliged in time for the summer barbie season. It contains a good selection of the Herbie’s blends particularly suitable for barbecues, a South Indian inspired wrapped chicken number, and a fantastic spare ribs recipe with star anise. (Herbie says “barbecue” basically translates to “cooked by male person”, therefore we can put ribs cooked in the oven in the barbecue kit!)
Many of you will have been disappointed that our native Australian blends have been out of stock because of a crop failure of bush tomato (akudjura) which is an ingredient in Native BBQ, Native Seasoning, and Bushman’s Pepperpot blends. With most herbs and spices, if there’s a crop failure in one part of the world, you can still find that particular commodity coming from somewhere else. However, by the very nature of Australian native herbs and spices, if they’re not available here in Australia, they’re not available anywhere! Faced with continuing unreliable supply, we have re-formulated the Bushman’s Pepperpot, and we promise you won’t be disappointed in the minor change. Native Seasoning has also been re-invented so that it is a suitable replacement for the original Native Barbecue, which will remain out of stock until akudjura is available again.
All this means that our True Blue Aussie Kit no longer has entirely Australian ingredients, as we have replaced the Native Barbecue with our immensely popular Balmain and Rozelle Spice in the kit. However, it’s still nearly all-Australian, and we hope you won’t mind too much.
Just a final word on our spice kits…if you’re ordering for Christmas, we might at times find it difficult to fulfil our usual one-day turnaround, so please give us a few days’ leeway on delivery at this busy time.
Our very best wishes for the Festive Season and New Year,
Herbie and Liz
post
Baharat, also known as Lebanese Seven Spice or Advieh, has become one of the many ‘go-to’ spice blends along with Ras el Hanout and Chermoula. Herbie, always up to date or ahead with spice trends, was asked to contribute this article to Australian Gourmet Traveller in 1999. Yes, 24 years ago! This is the article: Legendary spice merchant and blender, Ian (Herbie) Hemphill, has
post
post
post
post
post
We’re all in accord about single-use plastics. Having seen huge drifts of plastic in the pristine seas off the Indonesian islands, we know just how important it is to get rid of those shopping bags, plastic wraps and sandwich bags. When one gets emotional about bad plastics, it’s easy to begin to demonize all plastics, and perhaps it’s timely to repeat this message from our Newsletter of some years ago.
post
We invite you to join us, Herbie and Liz, as we return to our beloved India to take you to some places where many tourists don’t go! And some amazing places that you just can’t miss. This is designed as a holiday, not an endurance test, and we have made the itinerary a little more leisurely than some earlier tours, so that you arrive home refreshed and well. Be a part of our small group and join the fun!
post
post
post
post
post
post
post
post
post
post
post
Besides being a popular spice for Yotam Otolenghi, Aleppo Pepper is becoming the go-to chilli for many cooks and food lovers. Why would a style of chilli be called a pepper? After all it is not a peppercorn! Let’s start with a bit of background. You may recall that Christopher Columbus was sailing west to get to the Indonesian spice islands, because he guessed
post
post
post
LATEST RECIPES FROM KATE AT HERBIE’S KITCHEN For people with intolerances or special diets, spices are an excellent way of adding flavour when avoiding a variety of other ingredients Our Recipe Page has a handy check box for vegetarian, vegan, nut free, dairy free, gluten free, keto, paleo, low-fodmap and healthy eating categories (please bear in mind we are not trained in nutrition, and
post
LATEST RECIPES FROM KATE HEMPHILL AT HERBIE’S KITCHEN Longer evenings are just beginning, and depending on where you are, perhaps you’re eating dinner outside already. It’s also a time that we look to lighter fare (although to us curry is definitely a year-round meal); with crunchy salads, fresh seasonal veg, and grills on the menu. Check out our Al Fresco Dining Spice Kit, which
