Spice University - Parsley

A Little Spice of Life
From the Colonel

Petroselinum crispum curly leaf and/or Italian
Petroselinum neapolitanum flat leaf

Too Much To Drink? Eat Parsley! Bad Breath? Eat Parsley! Well One Out of Two

Another very old herb, in ancient times wreaths of parsley were used to ward off drunkenness. Parsley's success at this task is questionable, but we do love parsley for its other qualities. While there are more than 30 varieties, the two most popular are curly leafed and flat leaf or Italian parsley. Flat leaf is preferred in Europe for its richer taste while curly leafed is a favorite in the United States and Britain. A third variety is grown in Central and Eastern European countries. It has a larger root system than the varieties used for their leaves. This variety is used for its roots, much like turnips or parsnips.

The plant originated in the Eastern Mediterranean and then became popular in the North in the Middle Ages. It was often grown in monastery and Imperial gardens. Today, chopped parsley leaves are a popular decoration in Central Europe much like the use of coriander leaves in China, South East Asia and parts of India, mostly for soups and vegetables. Chervil is used as an alternate to parsley, especially in France. Parsley’s flavor suffers from any prolonged high heat cooking, parsley leaves should not be cooked if distinct parsley flavor is desired. Stems may be used in white stocks and sauces because they do not color the sauce as the leaves would and for their strength in flavor.

I am a big proponent of quick frying fresh herbs in olive oil. This is the one time that high heat and herbs is acceptable. There is one more important exception to the high heat rule and that is bouquet garni. Bouquet garni typically consists of a selection of fresh herbs (bay leaf, thyme, and parsley) which are tied in a bundle and cooked in soups, sauces or stews. Because of the long cooking time, the herbs’ qualities merge with the flavor of the other ingredients, enriching the food without being recognizable in the finished dish.

Parsley is a popular herb in Western Asia and often appears in Turkish, Lebanese, Syrian or Jordanian foods, particularly as a decoration for cold appetizers like hummus or tabbouleh, often regarded as the national dish of Lebanon.

Parsley has so much chlorophyll that chewing the fresh leaves will destroy the smell of garlic or onion on your breath. Parsley is also a mild calmative for your stomach and digestive system. Parsley is a great source of vitamins A and C. The small fruit of parsley has found little use in the kitchen. They can be used in vegetable stews or lentil dishes with very flavorful effect. Since the flowers are an efficient diuretic drug, large amounts of them may be hazardous, especially for people with kidney problems. The same holds true, but to a lesser extent, for the root. But, interestingly, it does not hold true for the leaves. There really isn't a good substitute for parsley unless you want to consider chervil. Chervil's nickname is gourmet parsley, but as the name implies it is a lot more expensive that parsley so is rarely substituted. It is usually chervil that is being substituted using parsley.

Recipes

Parsley garlic croutons
Parsley cola carrots
Braised Pork Roast With Paprika, Capers & Caraway
Havarti Tortellini Salad

Colonel De Stewart

Spice University - Vegetable Powders

A Little Spice of Life
From The Colonel


Carrot powder? What do I do with that?

Most of us are familiar with herb and spice powders, for example, allspice, cumin, basil, mustard, and rosemary are available in powder form to name a few. We use these when we are trying not to introduce a coarse or chewy ingredient into a particular dish. The powder will tend to blend in and not be noticed for its texture, but just for its taste and flavor. But, what about vegetable powders? I’m going to ignore the two most common vegetable powders, onion and garlic, since most of us have used them at least once. There are some who would argue whether they are vegetables or not. Beside, there are others lurking in the shadows of our cookery just waiting to be discovered and used.

What are they and how do I use them? I would like to cover three with you. The first is beet root powder. I happen to be one of those strange individuals that really like beets. It has even been suggested to me, by my eye doctor, that I should try to eat even more beets. Turns out beets are rich in beta carotene. This is the stuff that is very good for your eyes. It has been my experience, that I do not belong to a very big club. A lot of folks just don’t care for them. Let’s get back to beet powder. Beets are actually very sweet. A lot, I would say most, of the sugar that we eat today doesn’t come from sugar cane, as we would rightly assume, but the sugar actually comes from beets. How they get the beets from red to white is a whole other class. Let’s just say that they do that transformation everyday. This information should give you a hint as to how you might use beet powder. Since it is very red, you may use it to dye or add red color to almost any dish. Some anti-chemical folks will use it to dye Easter eggs. But besides the color, what we are really after here is the sweetness. In the winter and early spring it is hard to get good fresh local vegetables. The ones we can get can turn a little bitter as you cook them. Simple solution, add beet powder. It won’t give the food a beet flavor, you don’t use that much. It simply sweetens the dish without having to resort to processed sugar.

If the red color is really bothersome to you, there is another powder that can be used in exactly the same way and doesn’t turn everything red. Meet carrot powder. Carrot powder has a very slight orange cast, but won’t turn food orange when used. Like beets, carrots are also very sweet, so the addition of carrot powder is another way of turning bitter dishes sweet without going to our old friend processed sugar. Check with your doctor, but most of the time even those with sugar problems can use beet and carrot powder without adversely affecting their sugar levels. You can also use these powders to sweeten drinks like tea and fruit drinks.

The final vegetable powder brings us full circle. Let’s say that we have a dish we are making and all of a sudden it goes very sweet. What can we do? It is tomato powder to the rescue. Since it is also red, it can be a bit tricky, but if you are careful you can add just enough tomato powder so that the acidic nature of tomatoes tames the sweetness. Tomato powder is also good when you want to enrich a dish that already has tomatoes in it, but the flavor is still somewhat flat. Like I mentioned before, during the winter and early spring tomatoes seem to lack in flavor. An easy remedy is to add a little tomato powder. Adding it to tomato soup is like giving your soup a wonderful tomato infusion. Give it a try.



Recipes



Since these powders are used to enhance a dish and therefore are not an integral ingredient in the dish, I am going to turn the recipe portion over to you. Once you have experimented with these powders, drop off or send your recipes to me by e-mail and I will publish some of the best.

Spice University - Dill

A Little Spice of Life
From The Colonel

Dill Anethum graveolens

Dill means pickling and so much more

Dill weed has been around for thousands of years. Romans in the first century were convinced that dill brought good luck. The name dill, probably came from the Saxon word dillan, to lull, for its ability to soothe colicky babies and for the Greek tradition of covering the head with dill leaves to induce sleep.

Dill leaves have a flavor that is pungent and slightly tangy, almost caraway tasting. Dill is one of the best complements for many foods not to mention their importance to dill pickles. Fresh leaves loose their flavor quickly when being cooked. For this reason it is always best to add them as near the end of the cooking cycle as possible. The herb is sold as both fresh and dried. There is quite a difference between the flavor of fresh and dried dill weed. While heat is the enemy of fresh and dried dill leaves, it brings out the flavor of the seeds. Dill seed, actually the fruit of the herb, are more strong and pungent than their counterpart, leaves. Dill seeds are the part of the dill plant used most often in its namesake dill pickles.

The characteristic, sweet taste of dill is popular all over Europe, Western, Central and Southern Asia. In Europe, it is mostly used for bread, vegetable (especially cucumber), pickles, and fish; for the last application, the leaves are preferred. It is also indispensable for herb flavored vinegars.

In North Eastern Europe and Russia, dill is popular for pickled vegetables, which are produced in great variety, usually by pickling in vinegar. Fresh dill sprigs are mandatory in most recipes of that kind. In these regions with long, cold winters, preserved vegetables are an important source of vitamins and fresh flavor for the otherwise dull winter diet. Dill is also one of the few herbs used in the cooking of the Baltic states, where chopped dill is a frequent decoration on various foods (e.g., boiled potatoes), similar to the use of parsley and chives in other European countries.

Fresh dill leaves (dill weed) is a kind of “national spice” in Scandinavian countries, where fish or shellfish dishes are usually either directly flavored with dill or served together with sauces containing dill. German cooks also tend to use dill mostly for fish soups and stews. Dill reached the Northern latitudes probably via medieval monasteries, where it was grown as a medicinal herb.

Dill has, however, retained its popularity in its original homeland, Asia. Dried dill shows up in Georgia's (Russian Georgia not the US Georgia) famous spice mixture, khmeli-suneli and is also quite popular in Iran, where dill weed is usually employed for bean dishes, e.g., rice with boiled lima beans, baghali polo.

In India, however, dried dill fruits are occasionally used to flavor the lentil and bean dishes known as dal.

Recipes

Dill Lemon Cod or Salmon
Carrot Sticks and Dill
Marinated Vegetable Salad











Colonel De Stewart