Curry leaves - aromatic fresh herbs used in cooking

Curry plant belongs to Rutaceae family which is a popular leaf-spice in food due to its distinct aroma by the presence of volatile compounds and ability to improve digestion.

The species name commemorates the botanist Johann König. The Murray commemorates Swedish physician and botanist Johann Andreas Murray who died in 1791. Hence the botanical name of the curry leaves is Murraya koenigii.

Curry leaves are a popular leaf-spice used in very small quantities for their distinct aroma due to the presence of volatile oil and their ability to improve digestion.

The curry leaves are a rich source of many carbazole alkaloids with a diverse chemical composition. Solvents like ethyl acetate, ethanol, petroleum ether, water and chloroform have been used by researchers to prepare the plant extracts, and compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids carbohydrates, and sterol have been reported to be present in them.

Curry leaves are aromatic in nature. The leaves are shiny and smooth with paler undersides. Leaves are pinnate, exstipulate, having reticulate venation and having ovate lanceolate with an oblique base, with 11-21 leaflets, in which each leaflet is 0.79 - 1.57 inch long and 0.39 - 0.79 inch broad.

Curry leaf is an important leafy vegetable. The leaves have a slightly pungent, bitter and acidic taste, and they retain their flavor and other qualities even after drying. They are hence used in various types of curries.

It mainly used in cooking to provide flavoring in cuisine including fish or meat curries, vegetables, fried rice, soup, pickles, egg omelet, scrambled egg, and curry powder as well. Besides, it used as the cuisine; curry leaves have used for centuries for biological activities in human health.

In the eastern Asian community, curry leaves traditionally used in diet to improve appetite and digestion.
Curry leaves - aromatic fresh herbs used in cooking

Traditional uses of cumin

Spices are the building blocks of flavor in food. Their primary functions are to provide aroma, texture and color to food.

Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to East India. Scientific name for cumin is Cuminum cyminum. Cumin can be described as lax, slender, fine leafed, annual herb to 15cm tall. Small white or deep pink flowers are followed by the pungent aromatic seeds for which the plant is grown.

Cumin seeds are oblong and yellow–grey. Cumin seeds are liberally used in several cuisines of many different food cultures since ancient times, in both whole and ground forms.

The use of cumin is very common in Indian and Pakistani foods. It is used to season many dishes, as it draws out their natural sweetness. It is traditionally added to curries, enchiladas, tacos, and other Middle-Eastern, Indian, Cuban and Mexican-style foods. It can also be added to salsa to give it extra flavor. Cumin has also been used on meat in addition to other common seasonings.

The spice is extensively used in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Cumin seeds are nutritionally rich; they provide high amounts of fat (especially monounsaturated fat), protein, and dietary fibre. Vitamins B and E and several dietary minerals, especially iron, are also considerable in cumin seeds.
Traditional uses of cumin 

Dill in cooking

The leaves and seeds get their slightly bitter, pungent flavor and aroma from carvone, which is also found in caraway and is used to flavor kummel.

Dill seeds are very small and very light. It takes more than 10,000 dill seeds to make an ounce. One tablespoon of dill seed contains more calcium than a cup of milk.

The flavor of the leaves is a mixture of anise, parsley, and celery with a distinctive green bite on the sides of the tongue. The aroma is a clean combination of mint, citrus, and fennel with a touch of sea air.

Native to Southwest Asia and India. Dill has been used the most in cucumber pickles. It was known in ancient Egypt.

Dill is best known for seasoning pickles but is delicious in many recipes for meat, fish and poultry.

The Swedish make a dilly bread and use copious amounts of fresh dill to pickle salmon (gravlax) in a brine of salad oil, sugar, salt, whole white peppercorns, red onion and Cognac.

In Finland they make a buttermilk soup with fresh dill and in Denmark; most open-faced sandwiches are garnished with a sprig of dill. The French use a sprinkling on cakes and breads, but dill is particularly delicious in rye bread used in the same way as caraway.
Dill in cooking

Rosemary herb

Part used of rosemary is their leaves. Rosemary is an herb that thrives in gardens in warmer climates and favors an alkaline soil similar to its natives Mediterranean.

It has long been renowned as a memory aid. It has a tonic effect on the nervous system and is good for circulation.

Handful of rosemary sprigs can be added to the hot coals directly before placing meat on the grill, to smoke in its delightful aroma.

This flavorful herb makes a remarkable jelly for roasted meats and warm bread and may be used as a glaze for sautéed carrot, peas or meats. It is also savory addition to breads and rolls, cheese spreads and butters.

Restaurants raised the bar on flavor when many started making their customary breads with rosemary and the herbs works well with all grains as easily as it does bread. Rosemary also lends itself to hearty fish stews, tomato-based pasta sauces, pizzas, and open-faced lamb, beef or chicken sandwiches. It has a very strong flavour though and should always be used sparingly.

Rosemary gets its taste and scent from essential oils such as cineole, camphor and camphene – eucalyptus-like aroma, and linalool, which produce the forestry, sweet element.
Rosemary herb

Garcinia atroviridis or asam gelugor

Garcinia atroviridis also known as asam gelugor is common in the Malay Peninsula. Its fruit are cultivated throughout Southeast Asia, for spices.

The leaves are desuccate and glossy, long and show about 18 pairs of secondary nerves. The flowers are dark a red and the fruits are pumpkin like berries are edible and sour.

The ripe acid fruits which are a brought orange-yellow are sliced, dried and used in curries, as a sour relish or stewed in panty of sugar and eaten. The dried fruit slices are used to give acidity to cooked dishes in place of tamarind.

Garcinia atroviridis may be useful in preventing atherosclerosis or lowering the relative risk of atherosclerosis.
Garcinia atroviridis or asam gelugor

Candlenut or Aleurites moluccanus

The common names of Aleurites moluccanus, are candlenut, candleberry, varnish tree and Indian walnut (English); kukui (Hawaiian); lama (Samoan. Ancient Polynesian settlers introduced the candlenut tree, or kukui to Hawaii.

Candlenut is an evergreen tree native to Asia. The tree grows to a height of about 70 feet or 21 meters, has glossy heart-shaped leaves and small clusters of white flowers that develop into nuts. The nuts are 50 percent oil. When eaten raw, they are poisonous.

The nuts are usually roasted before being cracked open. Roasting the nuts reduces or eliminates the toxic effect.

Candlenuts have a s similar taste and texture to macadamia nuts. They are used especially in the cuisines of Hawaii, Indonesia and Malaysia. In parts of Indonesia the nuts are roasted and crushed into a sauce or cut into slivers then roasted and used as a condiment with salt and chili.

The Polynesia people used the nuts as a food source and fuel for their torches. The oil is taken as a laxative: and the wood of the tree is made into canoes. In Hawaii, the nuts are roasted then finely chopped and made into relish used in preparing raw fish.
Candlenut or Aleurites moluccanus

Chickweed

Chickweed is one of the most common weeds worldwide. It has been used since ancient times to treat external inflammatory conditions and is also consumed as a tasty and nutritious vegetable.

Chickweed or Stellaria media is a small herbaceous annual. Occasionally the plant can be found standing upright, but more often it is seen prostrated, rooting at stem nodes.

The newer leaves are normally stemless; mature leaves have petioles, are opposite and ovate in shape. Stellaria media is a common plant. Owing to its European origin, it can be found in lawns, gardens, fields and other moist and disturbed soils.

It can be mixed with a pot of stronger-flavored greens, adding the chickweed to the pot in the last minute or two of cooking.

Chickweed can be eaten raw in salads, served as cooked greens, juiced or infused as a tea. It has also been used as a mild laxative and diuretic substance. Chickweed contains moderate amounts of vitamin C and iron.

In traditional medicine, chickweed is used as a diuretic, cardioactvie, and anti-inflammatory agent and is applied externally to treat patients with wounds, rheumatism, arthritis, dermatitis and some other skin disease.

Chickweed essential oil has been found to contain several well-known contact allergens: borneol, menthol, linalool, 1,8-cineole, and other terpenes such as epoxy-dehydro-caryophyllene, monoterpene alcohol-ester and caryophyllene.
Chickweed

Cayenne uses in food

Cayenne also known as red pepper, it was first introduced to the world outside the Americas by the Caribbean Indians, who gave it to Columbus.

Capsaicin is the ingredient in cayenne that makes it hot. Cayenne is used in many hot and fiery cuisines around the globe, such as Mexican, Cajun, Indian, South American and Caribbean cuisines.

Just a dash of cayenne pepper will add zest to many a flat flavor. Even a pinch of cayenne in a sweet soufflé will point up the flavor. Many canned meats are flavored with cayenne and condiments are made more interesting buy its use.

Curry sauces and other sauces for fish, meats and shellfish may be seasoned with a few grains of cayenne.

It is also used in stews, soups, marinades sauces and cheddar cheese dishes as well as in baked goods such as corn bread and cheddar crackers.
Cayenne uses in food

Black dates

Fully ripe Chinese dates are selected, blanched, then dried and fumes at 60 to 70 ° C for 20 to 24 hours until they are black and wrinkled.

About the size of an olive, the black date has a pungent, slightly smoky fragrance, sweet flavor not dissimilar to that of a truffle.

Dried black dates are about ¾ inch long and ½ inch in diameter with a small pit inside.

Used in Chinese cooking, black dates are used in savory dishes that may include sticky rice, smoked sausage, lotus leaves or poultry.

The stone must be removed before use. Black dates should not be confused with red dates, which are not smoked and are used in sweet rather than savory preparations.

The black date is the most medicinal compared to red and honey dates. It is included in prescriptions and almost invariably accompanies angelica, completing and enhancing that herb’s actions.
Black dates

Garlic as cooking ingredient

Garlic originally grew in south central Asia. Garlic was carried out migrating populations all around the Mediterranean. Garlic is an Anglo-Saxon word that mean ‘spear-leek’: a leek with a slim, pointed leaf blade rather than a broad, open one.

Early Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used garlic as both medicine and food.

Garlic became sweet when it is cooked and bitter when it is burned. If garlic is peeled, chopped and then allowed to set for ten to fifteen minutes before cooking, the anticancer agents S-allyl cysteine and diallyl disulfide will for.

When roasted, garlic mellows and acquires a sweeter, richer character. Both healthful and aromatic, this ingredient is truly one of the secrets of fat-free Italian cooking.

Garlic can be roasted either in whole head or in individual cloves. Whole roasted garlic head make an outstanding appetizer – the soft, caramelized pulp can be squeezed onto warm, crusty bread instead of butter. It also can be added to recipes.

Good garlic is very hard, that looks like it’s about to burst out of its skin. The best garlic is often found at farmer’s markets and is often hard core variety; the bulbs arranged around a stiff central shaft.
Garlic as cooking ingredient

Galangal

Alpinia galanga (L) Willd is commonly known as galangal, greater galangal, Java galangal and Siamese ginger.  This tropical species is native to Southeast Asia, probably southern China. It is cultivated in Indochina, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia and the spice made from the rhizome is very popular in Southeast Asia.

Genus Alpinina belonging to Zingiberaceae is a genus of perennial herbs.  Fresh galangal has a distinctive flowery fragrance, dried galangal has a more spicy and sweetish-aromatic flavor that is similar to cinnamon.

Galangal is found in wild/semi-wild and cultivated area. It comes up well in tropical climate with an annual rainfall ranging from 1500-3000 cm. Plant requires sunny or moderately shady locations.

It has a beautiful ginger scent and helps to tenderize meat especially when it is slow cooked in meat recipe.

Galangal is a ’de-fisher’ and so is frequently used in fish and shellfish recipes, often with garlic, ginger, chili pepper, lemon, and/or tamarind.

In Malaysia, galangal fruits are sometimes substituted for cardamom and the flowers are occasionally consumed in salads. The fresh stems lends a wonderful aroma to dishes such as curries and chutneys and like ginger, galangal goes well with garlic.
Galangal

Black beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Black beans taste very pungent and salty and are used with garlic and often chili to flavor meat and to subdue fishy flavors in Chinese cooking.

Native to South America and used heavily in Mexican and Latin American cuisines, black beans are also known as Mexican, Spanish, or black turtle beans.

An excellent source of iron, magnesium and phosphorus, and folate, black beans make great additions to salads and burritos. Because of its rich dark color, black beans make any dish look and taste more exotic.

Black beans have one of the highest amounts of fiber of all beans. One cup of boiled black beans contains 59.8% of the recommended daily intake of fiber.

Black beans have a wonderful earthiness that stands up to lots of onions and garlic, chili peppers and spices, and smoked meats.
Black beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Bay leaves for flavoring food

The aromatic, green elongated bay leaf comes from the evergreen sweet bay tree native to the Mediterranean.

Bay leaves are most often seen in their dried form, but can be used fresh. The bay leaves favored for culinary use is from the Grecian laurel tree botanically known as Laurus nobilis.

Bay leaves are bitter and sweet in taste. Used since Roman times, when it symbolize victory and greatness and was used to crown emperors, poets, and writers, the bay leaves is a compulsory ingredient in all European and Mediterranean cooking for flavoring stocks, sauces, soups , pickles , preserves, meats and vegetables.

It is also an essential part of a bouquet gami, the classic herb combination of bay leaf, thyme and parsley.

In England there is a tradition of using bay leaves to flavor custard and rice puddings. Bay adds a subtle, spicy taste.

Bay leaves are also regarded as an appetite stimulant with digestive qualities. Bay leaves contain the oils rutin and furocoumarin, which are stimulants for the skin.
Bay leaves from Mediterranean

A traditional tea of bay leaves known as ‘Italian Grandmother’s Cure’ was used to calm colicky babies and was thought to be good for anyone who had a gassy or upset stomach.
Bay leaves for flavoring food

How to freshen your cooking

How to freshen your cooking
Replacing the dried herbs called for in a recipe with fresh leaves of the same herbs will usually improve the flavor of your dish, but you will need to use larger quantity of fresh herbs.

The usual ratio of fresh herbs to dried ones is three to one; which means, for example, that one tablespoon of chopped fresh herb is approximately the same strength as one tablespoon of the same herb in dried form.

But there are exceptions to this rule of thumb: for example a mere half teaspoon of dried basil is equivalent to one tablespoon of fresh, while one and one half teaspoon of dried dill are needed to match a tablespoon of the fresh leaves in flavoring power.

Thus, to freshen a recipe calling for a teaspoon of dried basil, use two tablespoons of the fresh herb; and of a recipe is content with a teaspoon of dried dill, then only two tablespoons of fresh dill will substitute for it.

As much as possible, alter the recipe to add fresh herbs near the end of the cooking process, which helps them conserve their essential oils. Dried herbs, on the other hand, need to go into a dish early enough to soak up its liquid and rehydrate.

In the case of bay leaves, there is really nothing to be gained in replacing a dried bay leaf with afresh one, since these leaves retain their flavor very well when dried and in fact, leaves that have dried just to the point of being brittle are actually preferred.

And fresh mint should not be substitutes for dried mint, as the two have rather different flavors.

Similarly, fresh and dried ginger are like two separate seasonings and neither can be used in place of the other.

Using whole species instead of commercially ground powders also has an amazing freshening effect. Measure out the same amounts of freshly ground spices as called for in the recipe.
How to freshen your cooking

Spice in World of Cooking

Spice in World of Cooking
Food is synonymous with particular places, and certain foods cause immediate recognition of where they come from and how they determine social behavior.

When we think “China,” we might think “dim sum,” similarly, we might think tandoori in India, bouillabaisse in France, couscous in Morocco, a bowl of pho in Vietnam, a satay in Bali, tom yum in Thailand, sushi in Japan and pasta in Italy.

Cuisine is just as much a medium for expressing culture as is art, literature, newspaper, television, architecture or urban design.

It is optimistic enough to think that this symbolism may change in the future.

Food and culture reflect out quality of life to the point where, every country posses, it seems, the sort of cuisine it deserves which is to say the sort of cuisine it is appreciate enough to want.

Until recent times, Australian cooking in general has had very little to do with spices.

In the formative years of white settlement in this country, diet and eating habits were entirely inappropriate to resource, climate and lifestyle.

Our forebears preached austerity, blandness and economical practically at the expense of indulgence and taste.

Reference books and cooking manuals used in Australia in the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century reveal that household storerooms stocked what we could call today a basic spice collection – a mere twelve or so spices, among them nutmeg, cinnamon, caraway and black pepper.

In contrast, the array we can now access and utilize is dazzling an encouraging sign of gastronomic and epicurean maturity and confidence.

Many fine chefs, cooks and writers in Australia have major contributions over the past couple of decades of changing the perception of Australian cuisine as just shrimp on the Barbie and meat pies.
Spice in World of Cooking

Caraway and Caraway Seed

Caraway and Caraway Seed
Caraway is the dried fruit of a biennial herb belonging to the Carrot family, which is native to Europe. Imports of caraway into the United Sates are mainly from the Netherlands.

Caraway is used to flavor rye bread, cakes, cookies, cheese, and sauerkraut; it is available whole or ground.

The principal flavor constituents of the volatile oil of caraway are D-carvone (50 – 60%) and D-limonene, with smaller amounts of other related compounds. The volatile oil constitutes 3 – 5% of caraway.

Carum carvi L., caraway is believed to have been cultivated and consumed in Europe longer, than any other spices species. Seed, found in ancient debris in Switzerland should be a proof for it. Cultivation is known since the Middle Ages, from Sicily to northern Scandinavia.

Although caraway is seldom used in medicinally, it may help settle upset stomachs when taken as a mild tea or steeped in warm milk. Crushing the hard-coated seeds fist, or chopping them coarsely with a knife, helps release their beneficial compounds.
Caraway and Caraway Seed