Recipes

The Book of Spices by Alain Stella Paris, 1993. While the book was somewhat disappointing for lack of recipes, it was an interesting history and catalogue of the world's spices.  Some of favorite excerpts from this book include: In the beginning there were regions of Franche, each with their own way of cooking, their own produce, eating habits, rituals, and landscape.  Then came the kings who united the provinces, and French cuisine made its entrance at court.  A mirror is held up to the period and to a kingdom, royal courts were receptive to fashion, to the arts and to those foreign influences on which the history of France is built.  So was it that European ports starting out as springboards to discovery, turned into sounding boards for countless far-flung-cultures.  The ever-curious cooks who, in their thirst for knowledge, unearthed with each new discovery of the flavor of spices from foreign lands.  The book mentions Bluebird spices, but we think our spice mixes every bit as good.  From the cinnamon of mysterious and ancient origins perfuming the Mediterranean coast for three thousand years coming from Sri Lanka, to cardamom a most valuable seed of southwest India infused in everything including teas and coffees, to cloves a perfume of Ambon in the Moluccas to the studding of a whole orange with it to make a pomander imparting a delicate fragrance to clothes in a laundry or the scent of potpourri or perfume bouquets, to cumin and cardaway seeds from their ancient haunts in the Middle East, to the ginger of Asian origins and famous now served pickled with sushi as a mild garni, to nutmeg now condensed into Ecstasy but famous for its own personal graters in England, to pimentos chilies and paprikas  of Mexican, Indian,

Saveur recently published the best online guide to dried chiles. Chiles Negros, Mulatos, and dried Hatch NM chiles are favorites in our pantry, but here is the authoritative guide. Some of our favorite recipes featuring dried chiles follow. 11 Dried Mexican Chiles to Know and Love, and How to Use Them The ultimate guide for how to identify, shop for, and cook with the pantry workhorse of the Mexican kitchen: dried chile peppers. Read in Saveur: https://apple.news/AUMyQB1bZSZu6XVpToDz1vA I also came across this great article on the 7 moles of Oaxaca. Here are our personal recipes of three recipes with dried chiles: https://sportingroad.com/argentine-recipes/venison-carne-guisada/ https://sportingroad.com/fur/chili-mole/ https://sportingroad.com/argentine-recipes/tortilla-soup/ For more great recipes and sources of chiles, visit: https://thespicetrader.ca/collections/chilis https://www.manoymetate.com/

Mothers often tell their children, “Don’t play with your food.” But the French have a toy for cheese—a sort of spinning knife with a big wheel of dairy beneath it. They call it a girolle; the rest of us call it a cheese curler or cheese wheel. It was love at first spin. After a visit to get some Tête de Moine, which is a type of cheese manufactured on both the French and Swiss sides of the Swiss Alps, it spins cheese into a mushroom trumpet shape, hence the name Girolle, which is French for the Chantrelle mushroom. They say you can also use Petit Basque on the girolle, which we haven't tried yet.

Over 60% of Halloween pumpkins get tossed in the trash, and the rate is higher in the UK for binning your Jack o lantern.  Instead, try this tasty French soup as our French friend, Laurent, describes simply as: Remove the seeds and filaments, dig the sides so you have enough space for the layers : 1 dried bread, or crumbs, 2 crème fraiche or sour cream, 3 mushrooms with a real flavour and again 1/2/3 until the top. 3 hours minimum at 180°Celsius, and you scoop the inside to mix the flesh and preparation. Then an electric hand mixer could help to get a nice creamy texture, or you stick to rustic crumbly aspect. If you do not like the result, if too thick, add chicken stock. Salt pepper. Parsley. Ready.