Topic: Whole spices

[chriswg]

I'm going to cook a variation of the F-word monkfish curry, using chicken instead today but the first part of the recipe includes whole cloves, green cardamons  and a whole cinnamon stick. While Im sure these impart a huge amount of flavour to the curry I dont fancy biting into any of those when it comes to eating it. Do they break down throughout the cooking so you don't notice them or do they need to be fished out at the final stage?

Any help much appreciated.

[currymonster]

They won't break down so you're going to have fish them out at the end of cooking.

[JerryM]

i used a spice ball off amazon for quite a while - worked a treat.

(currently roasting & grinding as per tgad2007. on next go i'm going to try out just grinding them)

[chriswg]

The cinnamon stick kind of broke down so I couldnt fish it out, but the curry was left with quite a few big bits if cinnamon in it. I'm not sure if there is anything that could be done apart from grinding it up or leaving it out. The curry tasted pretty good though, I'll post what I did later.

[Cory Ander]

I'm not sure if there is anything that could be done apart from grinding it up or leaving it out.

As Jerry suggested, Chris, you could put whole spices inside a spice ball or, simpler still, tie them inside a small piece of muslin cloth....unless you intend frying them, of course?

[Secret Santa]

Don't ponce around with muslin or spice balls, do what the BIRs do, blend the damn things in with the base! Yes, they do do this, because there ain't a chance in hell they're going to try to fish a few cardamoms, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks out of those bloody great pots they use!

Or, alternatively, boil up the whole spices in a separate pot and add this 'spiced water' to your base.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Don't ponce around with muslin or spice balls, do what the BIRs do, blend the damn things in with the base!

I would not recommend blitzing these spices as the final dish will be over the top with cinnamon and cardamom flavours. Keeping them whole ensures the dish is fragranced correctly.

[Secret Santa]

Stephen I think you missed the point there. The BIRs are doing it so why shouldn't we?

Or do you actually think that they really do go ferreting through those big pots of base so that they can remove the comparatively small amount of whole spices.    I have enough difficulty trying to find whole spices in a 1.5 litre batch of base!

[JerryM]

Secret Santa/Stephen,

keeping the balance right "fragranced correctly" is critical for me for sure.

i've been taken back how roasting & grinding produces the same result as infusion (i felt it shouldn't have done). yes getting the ratio's right in the roasting method is much more tricky than just eyeing up each whole spice or counting them but then u gain when using the roasted powder as u just measure out in tsp's.

the idea of blending them in would sit very comfortably with me. the only downside would be that i'd have to buy a proper blender as i don't feel my hand blender would handle the anis and cinnamon (the bay & cardamon soften enough during the base cooking to be not an issue).

[joshallen2k]

SS - do you think BIRs use whole spices in the base anyway?

That's not something most of the recipes here call for. Also I do agree that grinding up a whole cinnamon stick, close, anise, cardamon etc would have dramatic effect on the base taste.

I'm guessing you're right, they would not ponce about fishing out whole spices... but probably because they don't use them in the base.

Anyone seen evidence to the contrary?