Our Best Wishes
The start of this New Year and new decade has been memorable for all the wrong reasons, and our hearts go out to all those who have been directly and indirectly affected by the extreme weather and terrible fires. A fire that started in the same road as our factory mercifully went in the other direction and left us with just ash to clean up. Others have not been so lucky.
Herbie’s Spices Retail Area
Over the past few years, some of you have gradually found our little retail counter at the door of our Charmhaven factory, where you can tell us your wish list and we will hurry to the dispatch area to bring what you want. This year brings exciting changes, as we do a little re-shuffle of our space and create a proper retail area where you can browse, ask questions, and take your time. We look forward to welcoming more of you as word gets around. We’re just minutes from the freeway, should you happen to be driving between Sydney and Newcastle!
Our year began with another trip to India with a happy group of seventeen lovely travellers. Exploring just the south of this fascinating continent gave us a good experience of the regionality of Indian food, from the peppery Chettinad to the French-inspired Pondicherry cuisine (home of our delicious Vadouvan curry blend), and the coconut-rich seafood of Kerala. Is there another Indian adventure in the pipeline? Well, maybe; if you fancy a trip in March/April 2021, let us know.
Our Indian sojourn in 2019 was to the north in autumn. Seasonal food was abundant, and we encountered aloo gobi everywhere we went. (Aloo = potato, gobi = cauliflower. Look, you are speaking Hindi!) We all came home wanting to cook this delicious vegetarian dish, without too much bother, so Herbie did his thing and came up with an Aloo Gobi spice blend. The recipe is conveniently on the back of the pack.
We were sad to see the demise of Healthy Life stores in NSW; they had been customers of ours for many years, and they had asked us to create a turmeric-rich blend especially for them. Rather than let a perfectly good blend fall into oblivion, we have given it a little tweak and re-named it Golden Grill spice. Have it with vegetable stir-fries, grilled white meats, and in your autumn soups, to add the goodness of turmeric to your diet.
Also new this season is a simple little $25.00 kit in a pale green box, that we have called One Pot Wonders. For those time-poor times when you need something in a hurry, have a few of these little stars in the freezer. And on a cool autumn day, set aside a bit of time to cook a few of these delicious meals for later. With packs of our Tagine Spice blend, Herbs de Provence, Curry Mix with whole seeds, and Italian Herbs, you have a world of flavour at your fingertips!
Speaking of kits, naturally we have our brand new Box of Ideas for this autumn. Lavender, ajowan, peppermill blend, Turkish spice mix and American Spicy BBQ are featured this time, with lots of easy, tasty recipes to share with friends and family. In the autumnal russet-red box, it’s $25.00 plus postage.
What’s happened to the labels? Yes, you’re not imagining it: the labels definitely have a different background colour. Here’s the reason: the new labels are actually the original shade that we started with in 1997. Over the years, the shade gradually crept to the almost-dull yellow of 2019, until we suggested to our printer that the original pale cream background be re-instated.
What’s that funny square filled with squiggles on the back of our pack? It’s called a QR code, and here’s how you use it. Scan it with your smart phone and it will take you to more information about that product on our website. You’ll find more details and, at this stage, recipes for most products. (Give us time and we’ll fill it with even more good things!)
A great many of you take advantage of our website to order your spices. It’s the way of the world, ordering whatever you want online, and many online stores offer free shipping. Does anyone really believe that shipping is free? A 500g Express Post bag costs over $12.00 at the Post Office – a little cheaper for us as we buy hundreds at a time and get a little discount. Now let’s face it, someone has to pay for that postage. If a vendor offers free shipping, you can be pretty sure that shipping is loaded into the price. We prefer to give you the honest price of each product, and show you that the postage is added at the end.
Our postage is calculated at a flat $8.80, plus 22 cents per pack (incl. GST). It’s impossible to have a perfect system with online orders – sometimes we are a bit ahead, sometimes we lose a bit. If you order just one pack of spice, you are possibly going to pay more for postage than you do for the spice. Think carefully whether there might be one or two other spices you could use, to make the postage more reasonable for what you’re spending.
Upcoming classes: We’re visiting old friends at The Essential Ingredient in Surry Hills at 11.30 on 8th March, and other old friends, The Sydney Seafood School, for an evening blending and cooking class on 20th April. Why not join us? To book, just click here: Sydney Seafood School and use promo code/voucher HERBIES for a 20% discount.
Happy Spicing
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
