Wednesday 8 December 2010

Name that Spice

OK, so it's a dull, freezing cold December day and I have a day off work (using up some of my annual leave entitlement...). Working in the garden in these conditions doesn't appeal (and there's really nothing that needs doing anyway), so just for something to do I thought I would have a furtle around in the kitchen cupboards to see if we had any unusual ingredients I could photograph and write about. Then I hit upon the idea of having a "Name the Spice" post...

Here are photographs of 20 different whole spices. See how many you can identify. Double-click the pictures to enlarge them if you want to.

Check your answers at the end of this post.

First some easy ones.

1

2

3

4

Now some less obvious ones.

5

6

7

8

9

This one counts as two. Name both the inner "nut" and the outer casing.

10

Here they are separately.

11

12

Now some harder ones.

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

This one's not really a spice, but...

22

Having a well-stocked spice cupboard is vital if you are going to be able to have a very varied repertoire of recipes. Jane is an adventurous and hugely experienced cook, and she makes dishes from many different cuisines - European, Middle Eastern, Oriental, Caribbean, etc - and she likes to cook from first principles rather than using pre-prepared stuff, so it's important to have the right ingredients readily available, and without having to go out shopping specifically for each individual ingredient. Our kitchen store-cupboards are therefore crammed full of interesting stuff!

****************************************************************************

Here are the answers...
1. Cloves
2. Cinnamon
3. Black Pepper
4. Star Anise
5. Fenugreek
6. Coriander
7. Yellow Mustard
8. Cardamom
9. Szechuan Pepper
10. Nutmeg & Mace
11. Nutmeg
12. Mace
13. Juniper
14. Allspice (Jamaican pepper, or Pimiento)
15. Black Mustard
16. Poppy-seed
17. Nigella (Black Onion seed, or Kalonji)
18. Cumin
19. Fennel
20. Caraway
21. White Sesame
22. Pine-nuts


So, how did you do??

6 comments:

  1. Great selection, I love my spice cupboard and have most of those. My favourite is Asafoetida or Devil's Dung, great name and I use it occassionally in curries.

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  2. Hi Damo; We had some rather "unsatisfactory" encounters with Asafoetida some years ago, so we tend not to use it, but I know that if wisely used by a skilled chef it can be good. You are obviously a good cook in your own right -- so when are you going to post about YOUR favourite recipe(s)?

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  3. What fun! I started out well but then it all went a bit wrong as I didn't know quite a few. Oh well. Good weather to cook spicy food too!

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  4. What would we do without spices to enliven our meals!
    Sorry not to have time to take the test, but wanted to wish you a lovely holiday season... Cheers;~D
    Alice
    aka Bay Area Tendrils / Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

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  5. Well done Mark! I agree; a well stocked pantry is essential. Spices, pickles, flours, beans, and pastas all can play the second fiddle a fresh ingredient that is the star!

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  6. I will have to get to work on them and put a post together. Maybe over Christmas if I get the time! I normally do a turkey and leek pie with the leftovers which is very nice. I'll see what I can knock up.

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