Note Worthy Spice Blends

One key element to making a great meal is cooking with herbs and spices to achieve rich flavors and aromas that delight your senses. So lets create amazing culinary blends from around the world using herbs already in your spice cabinet.

Cinnamon, chili’s, cumin, fennel, ginger, mint, oregano, and turmeric are just a few that aid digestion. You have a garden/medicine cabinet in your kitchen making preparing your meal so much more fun.

When cooking with all herb and spice blends it’s best to start with a basic recipe then adjust it to taste. The more you learn about herbs and spiced the more flavorful your meals will be.

Herb and spice blends are at their best when fresh; use your senses to check for vibrant color and aroma, and make smaller batches you can store in airtight containers for 2-4 months.

To give your blends the most robust flavors, roast all seeds in a dry skillet and cool before grinding them into a powder.

Fresh Herb Blends
Classic French: Ads subtle flavors to omelets and salads; use as garnish to finish vegetable dishes, or to flavor chicken and fish. Use a combination of three on more finely chopped herbs. Choose from basil, chervil, chives, dill leaf, fennel leaf, parsley, and tarragon.

Middle Eastern: Use finely chopped to garnish or flavor rice, salads, vegetables, and meat dishes. Combine your choice of cilantro or dill, parsley, mint, and a dash of Aleppo chili or red pepper flakes.

Bouquet Garni: A traditional French seasoning made from fresh herbs tied into a bundle and added to soups and stews while cooking. Ingredients include bay leaves, celery leaves or lovage, parsley, thyme, and a dash of cloves. For a more savory bouquet garni add your choice of basil, rosemary, sage, or tarragon.

Dried Herb Blends
Herbs de Provence: A fragrant dried herb mixture from southern France known for its lavender inclusion, and ingredients vary according to what is available. Sprinkle on meats to grill, chicken, and roasts, before cooking. Mix basil, fennel, lavender, oregano, rosemary, sage, and summer savory.

Italian Herbs: A versatile seasoning for spaghetti sauce and pastas, eggplant parmesan, stews, grilled chicken, stuffing, and on garlic bread and pizzas. Combine basil, marjoram, oregano, parsley, rosemary or sage, and thyme.

Warm, Spicy-Sweet Flavor Blends
Add these blends to roasted meats; stir fries, potatoes, and grain pilafs. You can use them as rubs for barbeque. Sprinkle them on carrots, sweet potatoes and squashes, and even spice cakes and cookies. Just a pinch makes any dish an aromatic delight.

Charmoula: A North African rub used for grilled fish. Blend ground cumin, ginger, sweet paprika, sea salt, turmeric, and white pepper.

Chinese Five-Spice: A primary Chinese blend also used in other Asian and Arabic cooking. It’s best as a rub for fatty meats like chicken, duck, ribs, and seafood. Blend equal parts ground aniseed and Sichuan or black pepper, then add ground cinnamon, cloves, and fennel seed.

Curry Powder: An Indian spice blend usually made fresh daily. It gives kick to all kinds of marinades and sauces, curries, lentil soups, salad dressings, and stuffed eggs. Blend ground black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, ginger, nutmeg, and turmeric.

Garam Masala: A standard Indian blend that gives an enticing aroma to chicken, lentil, and vegetable dishes. Gather cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cumin seeds, nutmeg, and black peppercorns. Grind spices and combine to blend.

Quatre Epice (four-spice): A French blends for charcuterie, ragouts, soups, pot cooked dishes, and vegetable preparations. Combine ground allspice, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and white pepper.

Spicy and Hot Blends
Berbere: An extremely aromatic and hot Ethiopian spice mix used to flavor meat and vegetable dishes. Combine ground black pepper, red chili pepper, allspice or cloves, cinnamon, and ginger.

Chili Powder:
Use for curries, dips, meatloaf, pasta dishes, rubs for southwest dishes, and stews. Mix ground cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and dried oregano.

New Mexican Chili Powder: Use for chili, enchiladas, and stews. Grind and mix ancho chilies, chili de arbol or chipotle, and red New Mexican chilies; then add cumin, and Mexican oregano.

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Deviled Eggs for a Spring Treat

Spring, and Easter, and eggs, oh what a treat! We love eggs any way; but deviled eggs are always a particularly nice treat, they just seem special. They are easy to make… well maybe except for peeling the eggs if their too fresh, but the rest is a breeze.

Just hard boil your eggs; cool, and peel. Cut the eggs in half removing the yolks to a bowl, and whites to your favorite plate for serving when filled.

*We find using a fork to work the yolks until they are a crumbly meal before adding the rest of the ingredients attains the best texture for the filling.

For the yolk filling we like a bit of the classics finely chopped celery and scallions, then we add our personal fresh herb flair, chopped chives, flat leaf parsley, oregano, and thyme. Shake in a bit of celery salt, granulated onion, sea salt and ground black pepper to taste, and a dash of paprika. Now add a heaping tablespoon of your favorite mayonnaise/nayonaise (to taste) and a dash of Dijon mustard, blend the ingredients well.

Fill the egg whites with rounded teaspoon fulls of your egg filling, evening out to finish. You can serve them a bed of greens, sprinkled with more fresh herbs, or paprika, or even just plain!

For Mediterranean style eggs add chopped capers… or a sweet and savory twist, chopped sweet or dill pickles. Any way you make them, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

They stay in the refrigerator 3 days as long as they’re well covered.

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Herbal Tips - Lovage

 

Lovage (Levisticum officinale)
Lovage is associated with the element fire and its planetary ruler is the sun. The common name refers to the plants European reputation as a love charm. When a sachet of lovage is placed in the bath it is said to make you more attractive and love inspiring. Though largely a forgotten herb now, the lovage plant was cultivated in medieval times for culinary and medicinal purposes.

Culinary
Lovage is a very old herb with properties perfect for today's healthy lifestyles. Its unique flavor, which is a combination of anise and celery, can be used as a salt substitute, plus it gives extra flavor to vegetarian soups and stews. You can use it much like you would celery or parsley with a lighter hand as it has a stronger flavor. Lovage works well in potato and tomato dishes, or anything in the starch category. Every part of the plant is edible; use leaves in salads, sauces, and soups. Lovage stalks are also used to replace meat in main dishes.

Gardening
Lovage is a perennial and is very easy to keep in the garden; it can be propagated by offsets, and it is very hardy. Before you plant, consider how much space can be devoted; mature plants will reach 4 to 7 feet tall, which makes it the perfect backdrop for any garden. It grows best in deep rich loam and full sun, and grows well in large containers, too.

Harvest & Storing
Both leaves and stems may be dried for winter use, too. To prepare the foliage for your spice shelf, just swish the stems in water, then clip off the leaflets and spread them out on a parchment lined tray to dry until they're ready to be stored in airtight containers. A dehydrator works well if you have one, and lovage can also be hung to dry on the stem in a cool dry spot. The seed heads (which mature in August) should be laid out flat to dry, then put in a large bag and shaken to remove the seeds. Mason jars make great storage containers as long as they are stored in a dark cabinet. 

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Top Immune Boosters

Herbal antibiotic alternatives… In addition to getting the nutrients you need to support your immune system, a number of herbal medicines can help prevent and fight infection. One of the beauties of antimicrobials is their non-specificity and their crossover as many are good for bacterial and viral infections.

Here are some go-to herbs for immune boosting, infection prevention, and the treatment of common cold, flu, and respiratory infections.

Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) is an amazingly effective herb. While it doesn’t help as much to treat the symptoms of a cold, Echinacea is effective for cold prevention and reoccurrence so it can be taken throughout cold and flu season, or when you have a cold to help prevent it from returning.

Elderberry (Sambucas nigra) has been found to be effective in the treatment of flu for both adults and children. It is most useful when started within two days of the onset of symptoms. It can be taken in pills or capsules, though some prefer the delicious tasting extracts and syrups.

Garlic (Allium sativum) is both immune boosting and antimicrobial meaning it can fight viral and bacterial infections. The best way to use garlic for prevention is to include it abundantly in your diet, either cooked into vegetables and other foods, or preferably raw in salad dressings if you tolerate the taste. A clove can also be pressed and mixed with a teaspoon of honey and taken right off the spoon. This can be repeated one to two times daily during a cold.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is an antimicrobial herb that also helps with the aches, pains, and digestive symptoms that come along with cold and cough. You can make a tea with one or two teaspoons freshly grated ginger root steeped in one cup boiling water for 10minutes and then sweetened with a bit of honey, and you can also use capsules and liquid extracts.

Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) Tea catechins are strong antibacterial and antiviral agents which make them very effective for treating everything from influenza to cancer. One to two cups daily has been shown to prevent sinus infections.

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