More New Spices

I ran out of dried mint a month ago, and I've been waiting to get another bag. I finally got the opportunity to visit my favorite Middle Eastern grocery, this week.


A huge bag of dried mint, for $3.00 ($20.00 worth, at a supermarket). Plus caraway, cardamom, and ginger root.

I'll buy spices in plastic bags, especially at these prices - but I hate storing spices in the bags, when I have this collection of empty spice jars. The jars are way more convenient to open, when I cook.

This is at least $50.00 at supermarket prices (except you can't get black caraway, anywhere). At Afghan Market in Concord, this was just over $10.00.

Unlike my last spice purchase, I know everything here. The black caraway is an essential in my chili and similar dishes - Cuban Style Black Beans, for instance. And the mint will go into a lot of dishes - including the Sesame Mint Rice.

A most satisfying afternoon shopping.

New Spices

After some urging by friends, I tossed some of my older spices. This week, I ordered some new ones, to replace a few that I ran out of recently - and to try some different ones.

Sent by Mark & Reese at Season With Spice, using USPS Express Mail. 3 days after placing the order, I was taking the picture.

Now, to find some new recipes. I am familiar with coriander and mustard. And I have a few curry recipes. Garam Masala I am just learning - and the other two will be completely new.

So, Google is your friend, we'll see what happens.

Don't Eat Raw Taro Leaves

As you cook your favourite recipes, you may use many exciting and exotic ingredients. Some vegetables that you may cook, you may be curious about what they taste like by themselves, maybe raw. Sometimes, as you prepare your favourite recipe, you may nibble on raw vegetables. Why not? Raw veggies are a great snack.

Not so, for raw taro.

Don't eat raw taro, and especially don't let kids nibble on raw taro leaves. See WikiPedia: Taro, or Taro.co.nz: "Cooking", for more information. You may, alternatively, read my real life tale in Nitecruzr's Better Health And Living: Taro - Toxic When Raw.

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Use Chili Peppers, and Hot Spices, Carefully

I love spicy foods. Now, compared to what you can get in Thailand, my food is not terribly spicy, but one Habanero pepper can pack a wallop. Even a jalapeno or serrano pepper can cause pain. Your mileage may vary here.

When I cook spicy foods, like Chuck's Kick In The Seat Of Your Pants Chili, or maybe Chuck's Memory Of Thailand Mango Salad (with fresh jalapeno peppers), I take precautions. If you are going to use my recipes, I advise the same, based upon experience. The hot peppers (Habanero), and spices (Cayenne), can cause burning - seriously - if you're not careful. I like to joke around - a lot - but I am not joking here.

• When you clean and chop raw peppers, don't put your face in line with what you're chopping or cleaning. A squirt of juice or a seed from a jalapeno, in your face or your eye, will interrupt your cooking activities for more time than it takes to clean and chop it carefully.


• When you're cooking something with spicy vegetables, or hot spices in general, and you take the lid off the pan, use common sense. Don't stick your face into the fumes. Take the lid off with the opening pointing away from your face.


• If any discomfort is felt in eyes, stop immediately what you're doing, and flush eyes with water. Never rub eyes with hands until following morning.


• Wearing contact lenses may make your eyes especially sensitive to the fumes given off by the spices / hot peppers as they cook. Beware.


• Wash hands thoroughly, under running water, after preparing chili peppers. I use a kitchen brush with plenty of detergent, and scrub each finger on both hands, and under the fingernails. Plan on 5 minutes of scrubbing.

If you ignore my advice, you'll find out one day what I'm talking about. Or you can laugh at me for being a wimp. Your choice.

Don't Throw Out The Leftovers

I know everybody who's been cooking for a while has probably knows this already, so my apology for boring you. You folks who are just starting out need to know this though.

When you cook a vegetable, broccoli or cauliflower for instance, you trim the vegetable. You'll use the main portion of the vegetable for your main dishes, to keep the cooking consistent, and make the recipe manageable. But 75% of what you don't use in the main recipe can, and should, be saved for later.

With potato leek soup, for instance, you put maybe 60% of the leek into the soup. Now I don't know of any use for the hairy root, so that goes in the trash. But the green part of the leek is perfect, chopped, as a garnish for Peanut Stew, or well chopped and raw, in Couscous Salad, or Taboulli.

And when you cook broccoli or cauliflower, you'll serve the flowery end of the broccoli or cauliflower first. But take the stalk, put it in an airtight refrigerator dish, and save it for a few days. When you need a quick meal, take the stalk, peel it lightly (remove the outer edge, the toughest knots where the various branches split from the stalk, and cut off the end which may have gotten a bit tough from the air), and slice it crossways into 1/4" thick medallions. A little lemon juice, cumin, and / or garlic makes that pretty good, microwaved til tender. Or put the slices into Peanut Stew.

Those of you with crock pots probably put everything into a stew, on principle. OK, my apologies for boring you here. The rest of us can learn other tricks though.