Spice fascination allconsuming
IT is the complexity of spices that make them so valuable for cooks, Eleanor Ford says.
‘‘One spice alone can lift a dish.’’
Her fascination with spices and how they can be used and the history behind them led to her becoming a culinary detective as she searched out their stories and histories describing her new book The Nutmeg Trail as a work of gastronomic archaeology.
It is a project that has ‘‘fascinated and consumed me utterly’’.
Ford has focused on the Indian Ocean, the original cradle of spice, exploring food trading hubs where new flavour combinations were born and culinary crosspollination is most pronounced.
‘‘Different cuisines favour particular spice pairings and have unique ways of harnessing their aromas. Small tweaks of spicing make food with similar ingredients that is gloriously diverse.’’
A spice at its simplest are the parts of plants most densely rich in flavour, which can enliven and elevate food, she says.
They are dried seeds, barks, roots, rhizomes, fruits, arils, flower buds and resins from plants that grow in mostly tropical climates.
‘‘Spices’ aromas and flavours are volatile and fat soluble, the spices best freshly ground and their flavours extracted by sizzling in oil.’’
Ford includes a spice library, information on how to store, use and layer different spices. There is also information on their flavour profiles and where different spices come from.
She also gives a 101 in spice trade history of the maritime spice routes starting in the Indonesian spice islands for nutmeg and cloves, then to China for ginger, Sri Lanka for cinnamon and India for cardamom and black pepper via the Middle
East and northeast Africa to Europe for cumin, coriander and saffron.
‘‘Centuries of spice trade and cultural diffusion have changed the world’s cuisine.’’
Ford’s recipes, she warns, reflect her personal predilections for simple home cooking that delivers big flavours.
She tries not to adapt recipes in order to keep the authenticity of each dish as their stories and histories are important.
‘‘Inherently, these reflect my cooking in my London kitchen with the ingredients available to me.’’