The summer newsletter reminds us that Christmas is upon us once again, the time that we ponder over menus for The Day. This year we’ll fire up the brick oven to roast our galantine of turkey, and keep the heat out of the kitchen. The traditional pudding will take a break this year, as we’ll nod to the wintry origins of our Yuletide food heritage with a cool Mulled Wine jelly. We’re happy to share our recipe with you, so here it is:
MULLED WINE CHRISTMAS JELLY
Here are a few suggestions for you:
As you know, we are constantly looking at what spices are available to us, as seasonal and climatic changes can have an effect on crops. So now, it’s ‘All change at Vanilla Station’ … we now have good Mexican vanilla beans as our more economical vanilla choice (two beans per pack), while for the moment Niue beans continue as our premium vanilla.
Herbie’s book, Spice Travels, was originally published in 2002, telling the stories of some of our many journeys to spice-growing corners of the world. With tales of adventures in such far-flung places as Turkey, Vietnam and Mexico, each chapter is captivating. It is now out of print, a sad reality in the publishing world, however we are happy to tell you that it is available as an ebook for your Kindle or iPad. Download it from Amazon for some great holiday reading.
Our hugely popular wooden spice boxes are back in stock, and better and sturdier than ever before. With a change of supplier, we now have a 6-bay box (halfway between the original small 4-bay and the large 8-bay), which is made of sustainable, New Zealand-grown pine. It is available for $49.00 (plus postage), or, for a special gift, we can fill it with our Pantry Start-Up packs, twenty in all, for a cost of $130.00.
In our last newsletter, we were able to give the good news that a strong dollar had offset rising costs, enabling us to keep prices stable. Alas, the rising costs have caught up with us! But while sixteen products have had to increase in price, the good news is that five have actually reduced. You’ll be paying a little more for the following herbs and spices: Indian brown cardamom pods, green cardamom pods, ground cloves, garlic flakes, lemon myrtle, nutmeg whole and ground, sweet paprika, cracked pepper, Iranian saffron and turmeric. The blends that have increased because of the lemon myrtle and turmeric content in them are Balmain and Rozelle Spice and Lemon Pepper Native Seasoning.
It has always irked us that the wheat content in asafoetida powder has prevented us from claiming an entirely no-added-gluten range. Now we have sourced asafoetida ground with rice instead of that troublesome wheat, so it should be gluten-free. However under Australian food laws, even minute parts per million of gluten, if detected, have to be declared on the label. So asafoetida and the blends containing asafoetida, although now (virtually) gluten-free (Vegetable Curry, Chaat Masala and Sambar mix) will have a statement on our labels that says “may contain traces of gluten due to manufacturing practices”. And as we make the change, we shall delete Yellow Asafoetida and just carry the new rice-compounded asafoetida.
Every Christmas you solve your gift-giving problems by exploring our range of themed Spice Gift Kits. As you can imagine, as costs ebb and flow, we have to keep a careful watch to make sure the kits remain good value for you, so there are occasional changes to recipes and contents to make sure the value of each box is fair. New products in our range also sometimes call for a revision of kit contents – for example, the Mexican Kit has been entirely revamped to include the fabulous new Mole Poblano and Spice Dust blends. So the message is, re-visit the Spice Kits and see what’s new. Call us on (02) 9555 6035 if you’d like a list posted to you.
You ask every year for a special Christmas box, so we have finally put together a Herbie’s Christmas Feast Kit which has a super Christmas Day menu for you. But remember, as it’s specifically designed for Yuletide meals, don’t put it under the tree for the cook in your household to open on Christmas Day! Filled with light summery flavours like lemon pepper, fennel seeds, spice dust and star anise, as well as traditional Christmas flavours of crusting mix, mulled wine, and mixed spice, the kit has as a bonus, the original Rosemary Hemphill Christmas cake recipe. The Christmas Feast Kit in its shiny red box retails at $40.00.
We wish you all a safe and enjoyable festive season nicely spiced, of course!
Herbie and Liz
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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
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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.
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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!
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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
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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
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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
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