Healing with Food Update

How to Use Spices

Accompanying recipe: Garam Masala

Spices give pizzazz to an otherwise ordinary dish.  They add not only flavor--and therefore pleasure--but they also aid digestion.

If you want to use more spices but don't quite know where to begin, here's how you can start. Smell and taste the spices you have on hand.  Toss any that are stale (flat, dull, harsh or acrid tasting) and replace them with fresh spices.

A basic supply for most people is, perhaps, about seven different spices. Start with only your favorites or select from those listed in the recipe below. Keep it simple and don't bother with esoteric spices you'll never use.

Next, start using more spices in your favorite recipes to develop a feeling for the quantity that is "right" for you. If you're unsure of what spice to add to a dish, taste the dish and then smell the spice.  If it feels like a match, trust your senses and add the spice. Now taste again to know the result. Like experimenting to find your favorite perfume, you'll soon develop a "feel" for spices.

While ground spices are more convenient to use than whole spices, they more quickly become stale. Passed-its-prime ground cardamom, for example, has a nasty camphor flavor.

Furthermore, when buying ground spices, there's no telling how old they are until you taste them. As whole spices retain their vitality longer, favor whole spices. Or make  own spice blend from whole spices as in the accompanying Garam Masala recipe.

May you be well nourished!

Rebecca Wood