The recipes Mark includes are not only appealing to eat, but also provide plenty of inspiration for using spices more creatively in the kitchen. For each blend Mark tells us about the origins of the blend, how it’s used, and lists out recipe ingredients (with amounts). Caraway seeds are used in both the pastry and the tart filling, alongside mustard and fresh parsley, but it’s in the pastry that the spice really shines. With a few (such as harissa) there are specific instructions on how to make the recipe; for the rest Mark provides basic instructions and advice in the chapter introduction. Last comes the Drinks chapter with recipes such as Melon and pineapple tepache (a Mexican fermented drink), Loomi tea (made with dried limes(, Ginger, mace and verbenna berry switchel (a sweet sour drink from the USA), Nutmeg syrup, Sol khadi (a spicy and sour Indian drink), Ginger beer, Spiced rum, Krupnik (a Polish spiced-honey vodka), White dalmation (a pepper-spiced cocktail), Ponche crema (a Venezuelan eggnog), Mulled cider, and Tascalate (a Mexican cold chocolate drink).

The Cooks Companion | Harvey Jones The Cooks Companion | Harvey Jones

Mark Diacono shares the techniques at the heart of sourcing, blending and using spices well, enabling you to make delicious food that is as rewarding in the process as it is in the end result. Beginning with a guide to 50 of Mark's much-loved spices and blends, including their legacy and main culinary affinities, the book then offers over 100 innovative recipes that make the most of your new spice knowledge. For us, the mashed potatoes (also flavoured with paprika) didn’t work well with the chicken, and we felt that a contrasting flavour, or plain mash with plenty of butter, would work better. Bigger Things is full of dishes that are suitable for a main meal (from breakfast through to dinner) and offers recipes like Chipotle eggs in purgatory, Za’atar fruit fattoush, Chorizo and Merguez sausages, Spicy Scotch eggs, Paradise cauliflower soup, Yuki Gomi’s Spicy ramen, Bourride (a French fish soup), Mouclade (lightly curried mussels also from France), Li Ling Wang’s Mapo tofu, Bún riêu (a Vietnamese noodle soup), Lara Lee’s Sambal goreng tempe, Domi-yangnyeom-gui (a Korean fried fish dish), Blackened fish (southern US-style), Maunika Gowardhan’s Punjabi chicken curry, Nanjing salted duck, Doro wat (an Ethiopian spiced stew), Annie Grey’s 18th century English chicken curry, Juniper-brined roast chicken, Babi guling (a Balinese roast pork dish), Barbecue ribs, Zuza Zak’s Bigos (a Polish winter stew), and Pastilla (a North African filo pastry pie). In terms of equipment, he recommends an electric spice grinder over a mortar and pestle for most recipes (though not all).I’m drawn to Rice pudding with sweet dukkah, Blueberry and coriander clafoutis, Alissa Timoshkina’s Russian gogol-mogol (whipped egg and sugar dessert), Wattleseed shortbread, Nicola Miller’s Buñuelo with piloncillo syrup (Spanish and Latin American doughnuts), Qalat duqqa plum cake, Nargisse Benkabbou’s Ras el hanout and chocolate banana bread, Sweet long pepper cream, Tahini, prune and star anise ice cream with sweet dukkah, Ethiopian passion berry and tonka bean ice cream, Sarit Packer’s Pistachio and golden raisin baklava, Caraway and fennel toffee apples, and Cumin and coriander fudge. Lebkuchen (German spiced honey biscuits) are a seasonal favourite for us in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and these homemade ones didn’t disappoint.

Spice by Mark Diacono | Waterstones Spice by Mark Diacono | Waterstones

The reader will become familiar with the differences in flavour intensity and provenance and discover how, through the use of spice, we can applaud and appreciate cuisines from around the globe. Under Small Things you’ll find a wide range of treats that include condiments, small snacks and sides.We used this Hungarian spice mix instead of German lebkuchen gewürz – both are very similar gingerbread spice mixes – and it was just right. It’s easy to forget how versatile spices are in sweet dishes, not just savoury, and to this end Mark provides many tempting recipes in the Sweet Things chapter. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. These include Spiced apples and pears, MiMi Aye’s Burmese rainbow pickle, Pickled blackberries, Tomato and vanilla compote, Sambal oelek, Sriracha, Muhumarra, Kecap manis, Brown sauce, Southern states barbecue sauce, Saffron aioli, Olio santo, Caraway yoghurt dressing, Mostarda di frutta, Sour chilli melon, Nigella and ajowan parathas, Himbasha (an Eritrean flatbread), Panisse with lemon thyme and berbere, Baharat blackcurrant Eccles cakes, Potted crab, Ajowan samosas, Advieh stuffed aubergines, Star anise pak choi, Spiced sweetcorn, Seedy sprout slaw, Tempero baiano cabbage, Chimichurri new potatoes, Chaat sweet potatoes, Soused mackerel, Manchamanteles (a Mexican sauce for meat, fish or vegetables), Guajillo grilled courgettes,and Panch phoran roasted carrots. As with herbs, spices transform the life-giving act of feeding into the life-enhancing pleasure of eating.

Spice: Recipes and Techniques to Transform Your Mastering Spice: Recipes and Techniques to Transform Your

Focusing on the familiars including cumin, turmeric, vanilla, pepper and cinnamon, Spice will also open the door to some lesser-known spices such as grains of paradise, asafoetida, tonka beans and passion berries.These are covered alongside familiar spices that I know and use regularly but still appreciate learning more about. Mark Diacono is lucky enough to spend most of his time eating, growing, writing and talking about food. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. I’ve come across references and recipes featuring achiote (aka annato), anise seeds (not the same thing as star anise), cinnamon berries, grains of paradise, kokum, tonka beans, and wattleseed before but never cooked with them. Incidentally, if you are interested in the historic movement of spices around the world, please allow me to recommend one of my very favourite cookbooks from last year, The Nutmeg Trail: A Culinary Journey Along The Ancient Spice Routes by Eleanor Ford.