I went a bit nuts on amazon and bought lavender and garam masala. Although I've gotten used to throwing cinnamon and nutmeg in random chicken things anyway after I found this Brazilian recipe. And I've been wanting to play with lavender on lamb. But I need to find some lamb. With Basques in Nevada you would think there would be some but I might have to drive to Reno to find it. Or, truth be told, grit my teeth and spend a lot.
loving these posts. I, too, love to both cook and eat. We live in the best of times, when we can get all the spices—I look forward to weird alien spices! (Hmmm, maybe an anthology idea?)
I’m known as the person with weird things on hand, as I like to experiment too. Not a spice story, but years ago my best friend’s daughter called late one evening. In her high school cooking class, they were supposed to be trying and demo’ing new recipes. She had forgotten until the night before, and asked fearfully if I had any grits (not common in rural northern PA). I did, and the dish was lovely.
Like the meme says: if you traveled back in time, the locals would be far more impressed by your spice rack than your smartphone.
There's a poem from India hymning the wonders of the red pepper, the Poor Man's Spice, half a century after Columbus.
Peppers are so easy to grow given the right conditions, which India has in spades.
It displaced the native black pepper from everything except certain ceremonial dishes with prescribed recipes.
I went a bit nuts on amazon and bought lavender and garam masala. Although I've gotten used to throwing cinnamon and nutmeg in random chicken things anyway after I found this Brazilian recipe. And I've been wanting to play with lavender on lamb. But I need to find some lamb. With Basques in Nevada you would think there would be some but I might have to drive to Reno to find it. Or, truth be told, grit my teeth and spend a lot.
Do you have an Aldi? I sometime get lamb there surprisingly inexpensively.
Not yet but any day now...or any week now.
loving these posts. I, too, love to both cook and eat. We live in the best of times, when we can get all the spices—I look forward to weird alien spices! (Hmmm, maybe an anthology idea?)
I’m known as the person with weird things on hand, as I like to experiment too. Not a spice story, but years ago my best friend’s daughter called late one evening. In her high school cooking class, they were supposed to be trying and demo’ing new recipes. She had forgotten until the night before, and asked fearfully if I had any grits (not common in rural northern PA). I did, and the dish was lovely.