Category: 1.2 Herbs and Hedgerow

Garam masala: A mix of spices used in lots of Indian (and other) dishes. When I was growing up I found out that lots of families had their own personal mixes passed down through generations to make their families food their very own. Beautiful and romantic as that is, and while a basic mix is made up of other things on the shelf, the skill in the blend and the roasting is beyond my skill to make consistently and my own. So for simplicity I use the pre-mixed stuff.

Mixed Spice: As it says a mix of spices – it contains things I don’t keep on the shelf – like allspice and mace. Used in some spicy dishes but just as often in cakes and desserts.

Nutmeg (whole): Whole nutmegs keep for ages without losing their edge, even better if they have their kernels on – not only do they keep better but you can get the fresh mace, wrapped like lace, around them too. Even without this and in their inner case they keep for years. Fresh ground is an aroma that fills the kitchen and add to cakes, syrups, spiced food, tea, the list goes on…

Paprika: Dried and ground red peppers. It adds a taste of capsicum without the heat and colours dishes a deep almost oily red. For me it’s though some Spanish and Mediterranean dishes. It adds a depth and a pungency which is hard to get with anything else. I’ll sometimes add it to tomato sauces to spice them up instead of (or along with) chilli, and it goes amazingly well with shellfish, rice dishes, as a sprinkle on chilli and (of course) in sausages.

Paprika (smoked): The louder bigger brother of paprika – the smokiness works better when using a darker heavier meat, like goose or venison. It can add a hint of BBQ to kebabs from the oven and packs a real punch when added to a sauce.

Sea salt (Maldon flakes and large granules): I like sea salt. It tastes stronger to me and therefore I use less. I use sea salt granules for salting water, and Maldon salt for everything else. I’ve tried other salts and basic table salt is so much less tasty – I end up over-salting everything. So I spend more and use less. It has the added advantage of (when sprinkled on top) of adding a crunch and intense shards of flavour. Some ingredients are worth the extra and to my mind sea salt in all it’s incarnations is definitely one of these.

Turmeric: A root, vaguely like ginger root in appearance (same family), and like ginger you can grow it in the UK with a little care. To my taste buds turmeric is a bitter drying taste, with a depth of almost overpowering earthiness, but on top (or underneath) that is a complexity – acid when fresh, acidic in aftertaste when dry. Brilliant with lime or lemon flavours and a colour that makes my potato curry look just right. Often overlooked in my opinion, a really versatile spice that brings out the flavours and adds contrast to a host of dishes.

So that’s it… Not too many, and all refreshed at least every year through use. I’m having a go at growing saffron, but we’ll see if that makes it onto the shelf, or not… I’ll keep you posted

I like to minimise the number of spices I have on my shelf as much as I can. The reasons? well mainly it’s so they don’t get too old before they’re used. And when I made the shelf I kept it small to enforce the rule.

The time was that I’d slavishly follow recipes, and buy herbs and spices especially for one dish, but no longer. Gone are the days when, reaching the end of the supermarket aisles I would still be missing one ingredient and would have to trapes back round replacing things and wondering what the hell I was going to cook now?

It’s also worth saying I don’t keep dried herbs on my shelf. I grow pretty much all the herbs I use and tend to freeze the tender ones as a paste or make flavoured oils to take me though the winter. The spices are ones I use often and I’ve found can substitute for others in recipes if I need too.

So, whats on the shelf…

Black pepper corns: In a grinder – used in just about everything and with a taste a world away from pre-ground pepper. I buy 500g bags and keep them in air-tight bags inside an air-tight box to keep them as fresh as possible.

Beef stock cubes: For when I don’t have the bones or the time to make fresh.

Bisto gravy granules: Because they are easy and work well for gravy in pies, but not used in anything else…

Boullion: An excellent veg stock powder that adds good flavour to other stocks without adding too much salt. I’ll often fortify my stocks with a teaspoon of boullion, or use it to add a bit more depth to a spice mix.

Cardamon pods: I buy these in bulk too, 250g bags. I use the seeds, but they keep better as pods. In rice, cous cous, curries and even in some cake recipes – love the aniseed flavour. I’ll use them interchangeably with Fennel seeds (which I collect from the garden in season). And of course anything that needs an aniseed edge gets them in as a substitute for star anise for example.

Chinese 5 Spice: Most of my Chinese style recipes have this in – it’s easy and smells like my earliest memories of Chinese food. Not sophisticated but a great staple flavouring.

Cinnamon: Who doesn’t like the smell? in muffins, cous cous, danish, some curries, syrups – awesome spice. Don’t use much but couldn’t be without it.

Cloves (ground): A strong pungent flavour – not for the faint hearted… As part of a rub on a roast ham, in some curries or pickles – packs a real punch. Typically added in tiny quantities but really makes its presence felt.

Cumin: A mainstay of my cooking. From Africa through to the far East. Cumin is at the heart of many, many spice mixes. Just try a roast chicken rubbed with cumin and olive oil and try not to drool as the smell fills the kitchen – go on I dare you! Again I buy in 500g bags and it lasts maybe 3 months…

Curry powder: A simple mix for basic curries. You can mix your own (and I sometimes do) but sometimes speed and ease is more important…

Fennel seeds: From the garden. I harvest some in the autumn, but the birds love them too. Most often used through naan-style breads (or similar) to add an aroma that, to me, turns bread into joy. I’ll only use a teaspoon through a bread, and this is the one ‘herb’ I dry to prolong the shelf life. But in reality 80% plus of the seeds are eaten by the birds and I only keep about 1 spice jars worth for us to use over the winter. Because as soon as it’s spring I’ll use the fresh fronds instead.

To my mind there are three types of rose in cooking: for the colour; the aroma and of course; the taste.

Depending on which of these I’m majoring on in a recipe I’ll use a different rose, or rose substitute.

So lets start with taste.

The best way to do this is to taste you own rose petals. Take a few from each rose you have (wild or cultivated), wash them and do a side by side taste test. Whats important is the taste and flavour of the petal – because a lot of the scent is from the centre of the flower, and when the petals are separate and stored the flavour is different to when you can smell the bloom.

A rule of thumb I read, and agree with after tasting, is that pink roses tend to taste the best. Darker roses from my garden tend to be a little more bitter, and the whites less flavoursome. Maybe its the pigments – but I don’t really know…

So pink roses – I harvest them at their peak or perhaps one day after and take the perfect petals as I dead-head. For these petals I blitz with a tiny bit of veg oil (one with no taste of its own like sunflower oil) then freeze as cubes. I’ll use the petals direct into couscous and as part of my rose harissa. Basically anything with spices and not desserts.

Next for aroma

This is where I cheat. For aroma I use Pelargonium ‘attar of roses’. It’s a geranium, tender, but thrives and survives in my unheated greenhouse. Takes cuttings well and also acts as a good companion plant (attracts pollinators and deters pests).

For Pelargoniums use the leaves – not the flowers. The flavour and aroma of rose is intense – it’s the taste of Turkish delight. And bluntly not the taste of Roses but the taste of the smell of Roses.

I use this in tea – makes a beautiful rose tea or addition to an infusion. In cakes and desserts this is king. You can crystallise the leaves to keep the best flavour for months, and I use a mix of pink Rose and Pelargoniums to make rose water.

Finally for colour

This is where you can play. My favourite for adding colour is ‘Hot Chocolate’ a beautiful rose, dark red – like claret mixed with dark, dark chocolate. I use the petals roughly chopped to mix though basmati rise (often alongside calendula petals and nasturtium), or in bread dough (Moroccan and focaccia). Sometimes a sprinkle though a muffin or finely chopped through a sponge (especially if I’ve flavoured it with Pelargonium).

So there you have it – Roses – I use them for cooking more than I cut them for the table, but mostly I just admire them in the garden.

So when you pick Roses for the garden think about all of their uses. Repeat flowing is awesome, I prefer singles or semi doubles, because I want bee-friendly, size colour, habit, and massively important is disease resistance.

Luckily there are many, many types to choose from, and one for every space, soil and situation. Underplanted with geranium or viola they are a source of delight for me all year round and, even with some frosts, I often have blooms right up until mid December.

Hips are the fruiting bodies of roses. But because of selective breeding for blooms in many varieties are sterile, or unable to be pollinated because of the abundance of petals, and hence produce no hips.

Of those that do produce hips – well not all hips are created equal… I currently use two types for cooking: Rosa Rugosa (alba); and Rosa Canina. To give them the English translation the Wrinkled Rose (White) originating from China and Japan and the Dog Rose which are native to Europe and the West/North-West of Africa.

Rosa Rugosa produces larger hips (about 2.5cm diameter), as slightly flattened spheres. They ripen earlier than Dog Rose and the season lasts much longer (August to November here). So I can get multiple pickings. I always leave about 20-30% for the birds in the early season as there is still a lot of other food sources, but into November I cut back to50%.

The good thing about Rosa Rugosa is the hips tend to be on the outside of the plant and easy to pick and when they are ripe the thorns drop off the stem of the hip – almost inviting you to pick them.

Dog rose, by contrast has skinnier hips maybe 2.5cm by 1 cm thick, on last years wood and therefore often protected from picking by this years growth. They are available later (October, November) and are trickier to pick without thick clothes and occasional swearing. Because of this and the time of year I rarely pick the full 50%. However, the hips keep better off the plant and you can have a few rounds at picking over a week without fear of losing the earlier harvest before you process the batch.

Both are prolific, and while I love the ease and bulk of the Rugosa rose hips the flavour is (to me) less intense and slightly thinner.