Topic: 8 tastes of spice

[acrabat]

Apologies if this has been posted before but stumbling across this http://www.splendidtable.org/story/8-ways-to-extract-unique-flavors-from-whole-spices short video struck a chord with me. The chef explains that a good cook should be able to get the same whole spice to taste of eight different flavours depending on preparation. This is something I have been experimenting with a lot recently, particularly with cloves, cumin, cinnamon ,coriander, pepper and brown cardamon seeds (removed from husk). I have tried using different methods of preparing small amount of these spices and adding them to my curries. I have tried a few different combinations of roasting, frying, boiling and grinding. An example would be lightly toasting a mix, grinding then adding the spice mix during the initial reduction of the first ladle of base. Contrast this with only using the whole spices or frying then grinding. The results are very different. So far the results have been very tasty. I next intend to try boiling the spices in tinned tomatoes, I suspect the acid from the tomatoes will change the nature of the spice flavours. I have not hit on a BIR flavour yet but I think I am getting closer and the curries are certainly different from the taste I usually end up with. I know it sounds just like garam masala but the different preparation techniques really do change the end result a lot, it's not like just adding a bit of pre made GM, the tastes come out very different and distinctive.
Anyone else tried this route?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Interesting.  I followed up on the chef's forthcoming book, but fell at the first fence (his recipe for chicken curry) :  what the h@ll is "half-and-half", as in "1/2 cup half-and-half" ?

** Phil.

[acrabat]

I have to admit I did not read any more from this chef, it just made me think that perhaps I was not wrong in experimenting with the way to use spices. When I started making curries 25 years ago everything I read implied that the only way to treat spices was to fry a mix of powdered spices (usually an equal mix of cumin, coriander and turmeric) in oil. Garam Masala had to be sprinkled on at the end of cooking.  I now believe, no, make that know, that while having some basis in truth this method is a very narrow part of the story in getting the flavour out of spices. I think we all need to move beyond this to get a better understanding of how we can use our spices. I do not believe that frying powder in oil or boiling whole cloves, cinnamon et al is the only way.

[h4ppy-chris]

Interesting.  I followed up on the chef's forthcoming book, but fell at the first fence (his recipe for chicken curry) :  what the h@ll is "half-and-half", as in "1/2 cup half-and-half" ?

** Phil.

Definition: Half and Half is a dairy product consisting of half light cream and half milk. Half and half has a fat content of between 10.5 percent and 12 percent.

[commis]

Hi

Phil, it's basically one part milk one part single cream.

Regards