Once again, its time to look at some of the health benefits of Asian ingredients. Like the previous post that extolled the medicinal virtues of turmeric, marigold, coriander, black onion seed and bay leaves, this post will look at the uses of cumin, black cumin, cardamom, black cardamon and fenugreek both in the kitchen and in the armamentarium of treatments used by doctors and pharmacists … Read more
We take so much for granted these days. Almost every household cupboard has ground cinnamon or cinnamon sticks in them. Mass produced cinnamon is cheap and readily available at almost every market and even higher quality cinnamon sticks from the far reaches of the globe are accessible and relatively affordable via the internet. In times past, however, spices were rare and expensive and significant portions … Read more
Biologists do things differently – sometimes very differently – from most people. Case in point is that most of the “nuts” that we cook with are actually fruits. To a biologist, a nut is defined as a one-seeded fruit with a hard, ripened ovary wall (pericarp). Of the many culinary nuts used in Asian cooking, only hazelnuts and chestnuts are true nuts. Most everything else … Read more
No, not another promised exploration of the cuisines of the Levant States or of Saudi Arabia. This essay is about the root vegetables eaten along the Silk Road. That is onions, shallot, leek, garlic, carrot, rhubarb, beet, radish and turnip – and everything in between. For example, all of the commonly consumed vegetables in the Allium family (onion, shallot, leek and garlic) as well as … Read more
In answer to a question recently posed to me by the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, this week’s offering on the blog is a primer on the food uses of schizandra – berries widely used in China, the Koreas and Japan for coloring and flavor in food and beverages. Schizandra berries are the fruits of the magnolia Schizandra chinensis or Schizandra sphenanthera that are … Read more