Blog Archives
Spices 101: What is curry powder? Garam masala? Curry leaf?
Over the past couple of years I’ve really become a hardcore fan of curries. The flavors that come out from combining the amazing blends of spices they employ are out of this world. Best of all, they’re easy. Throw a bunch of shit into a pan and 40 minutes later, there’s a complete meal which smells like upper class India. Unfortunately there’s this odd misconception people seem to have about curry in general. For most of my adult life, my mother has expressed her distaste of Indian food because she “can’t stand all the curry they use in their food!” She’s somewhat come around from that perspective from eating my cooking, but alas there are still a lot of people out there who believe ‘curry’ is some sort of single mystical spice from a far-off land. If you’re not aware, curry seasonings actually encompass a great deal of different spices such as cumin, chili powder, turmeric, etc… But there isn’t actually one single spice called “curry”.
Son of a bitch!
Cheat Codes: How To Dry Your Own Herbs
Some people say variety is the spice of life. So I guess that makes spices the spice of food? However you wanna look at it, there’s no denying the important of herbs and spices in cooking. Without them, your flavor options would be pretty limited to really bland combinations of salt, cream, and plain vegetables/fruits. Virtually every recipe calls for herbs thrown in for that extra flavor mile. The only problem with these culinary truths is that buying herbs isn’t always cheap or convenient. We’ve already discussed growing your own herbs at home a long time ago on PCFG, but what if you want to hang onto those herbs all year round? Potted herbs are great, but sometimes it’s a pain to bring them inside over the Winter, and beyond that sometimes you just need to heartbreakingly say goodbye when a good herb plant simply dies in the cold. Big name spice companies dry their herbs and bottle them for sale, obviously. They probably use some sort of space-age water neutralization mega oven science shit. No one could do that at home, right? Believe it or not, actually yeah you can. And it’s pretty easy. Probably 90% of the process involves literally doing nothing, so it’s totally possible to dry herbs at home even if you’re super lazy. Read the rest of this entry
Spices 101: What is chipotle?
Chipotle peppers have really taken off in the past decade. I never really saw them in many dishes outside of Mexican cuisine when I was younger, but holy crap are they popular now. I’m not sure who was responsible for it but boy are they happy. Perhaps part of it is tributed to the rise of the burrito franchise Chipotle’s, but I dunno… no offense to them, but they kinda suck. Or rather the food is good there, but the prices are unnecessarily high. But forget them, we’re here to talk about real-ass chipotle peppers and what to do with them.
Chipotle pepper
Origin: Mexico
Appearance: Dark-red flakes / wrinkly, dark-red peppers
Scent: Smokey
Taste: Smokey, Spicy
Foods: Mexican and many other Latino cuisines
Rareness: Common
Cheat Code: Garlic Oil
Whether for heating your home or cooking, oil is expensive, there’s no doubt about it. The process of making cooking oils is labor intensive and requires literally squeezing oil out of little things like olives or various seeds. And if you want a flavor infused oil? Be prepared to shell out even more money, usually for really small amounts. Luckily it’s pretty easy to make your own flavor infused oil at home!
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Quick Recipe: Sesame Pancakes
Pancake recipes tend to call for some sort of fat in the form of oil or butter, to keep the batter moist as it cooks. This recipe substitutes the regular vegetable/canola oil and uses sesame oil. If you’ve never had it before, it has a dark, rustic flavor and smells absolutely amazing, like pure concentrated sesame cookies. You can generally find it in every Asian market, and even most supermarkets now stock it, though it tends to be fairly expensive in regular stores. If you’re concerned about price, you can easily use oil blends, where its cut with canola oil. It keeps the same delicious smell and flavor, but is just a bit lower in concentration. The pancakes themselves taste like sesame cookies and have a nice enough zing to stand up against syrup.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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