10 Spicy Burgers for Hot Tasty Days

Hot days ask for spices. Lots of them. And long meals eaten outdoors. Grills and barbecues and cold beers and white wines. All the good things in life.

For me, a delicious summer meal should involve meat. And my newly discovered love for spices. A burger, preferably, with a glass of sparkling white wine and some roasted veggies on the side. As simple as that.

Let's start with the meat part, for now. I am a big fan of meat, but consumed moderately - once the week, and only kosher. Which means that sometimes I depend on the available supermarket offer. I am not living in America after all, where the range of kosher meat is amazing and you only need ideas to make all those meaty dish to happen. Before the Jewish High Holidays, I wanted to offer myself a meat overload, in preparation of what was supposed to come. Just to be sure that my stomach is getting ready. 

As a busy mom, frozen burgers are the answer to many serious foodie problems. All you need is to defrost them and add the right ingredients and salad - very easy fresh tomato and cucumber salad, for instance. 

Happy owner of a 10- beef burger pack, I started to build up our star of the lunches for the next days. Luckily, the generous reserve of spices I got from Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program, solved 99,9% of my questions and challenges. 

First, need to defrost the burgers. Therefore, I place them on baking pan for around one hour. 

Meanwhile, the search for the best spices, began. I tried to use at least 8 different spices, spread to every burger. One got a special treatment, as I wanted to try a gourmet variant, with a truffle oil addition. This is the only burger that got some oil, as for the rest, I only used spices.  

I smear the spices on both sides of the burgers, to be sure that the flavors are equally distributed all over. 

Ingredients

I've used the following selection of spices (for each side of the burger, I used 1/4 teaspoon). When not mentioned otherwise the spices were offered by Spice Kitchen UK:

- Fenugreek - was the best surprises. Its hints of roasted maple, which means both a sweet and bitter add, it melted perfectly with the original beef flavor. Note to myself: experience more with this amazing spice.

- Harissa - is a classical Moroccan hot spice, but it cannot get older. Recommended if you love your meat hot and very spicy!

- Aleppo Pepper - it is a very versatile spice, that adds a fruity pleasant note. Pleased to discover it matches meat as nicely as it does with avocado.

- Urfa Biber - it never disappoints when it comes to coming together with meat. It adds that special flavor and balance that goes very well with any kind of meat (tried with turkey and now with beef and nothing to complain about).

- Ras el-Hanout - it is a very rich spice, which has an impressive list of ingredients (from star anise to rose petals, cumin, turmeric, paprika and nutmeg, among many others). It goes very well with foods which are 'neutral' (not with a very strong flavor, such as corn or couscous) and opens up a complex range of tastes and impressions.

- Berbere - it never disappoints when it comes to meat, and I was very happy to reinvent a - despicable at a time - childhood traditional meal. It has a balance of tastes, from very spicy (paprika, black peppercorn, red chilli, garlic), to moderate mild ones (fenugreek and cardamom). 

- Black Pepper - from my own reserve of spices...- as simple as that. Pepper, especially the black one, always adds a particular spicy note to every meal, and to some cocktails too (Bloody Mary, anyone?). I smeared over the burger also 1/2 teaspoon of truffle oil, my purchase from www.viani.de.

- Special Grill Mix - a mix available in the Turkish stores in Berlin, which has: paprika, pepper, chilli, coriander, garlic and celery salt.

Directions

Preheat oven at 250C.

Leave the burgers to cook, while moving them from a side to another every 20 minutes or so.

Serves: 10

Preparation time: 15 minutes+the time requested for the burgers to defrost

Cooking time: 1 hour

Bon Appétit!

Disclaimer: Spices offered for review by Spice Kitchen UK, but the opinions are, as usual, my own.

Ready for New Spicy Adventures. Avocado Toast with Aleppo Pepper, anyone?

When your mail box smells of fresh spices, you know that you just received something too good to be true! The multi-awarded Birmingham-based company Spice Kitchen UK selected my blog for their Brand Ambassador program and my selection of spices that I want to try for the next weeks and months was sent super fast, with a very responsive and friendly customer service that I rarely experienced, sending updates about the products I've selected and the stages of the delivery.

I've worked previously with this family run company, back in 2013, but since then they grew up and I - hopefully - got more experience in terms of both cooking and understanding flavors, so I am very excited about my next cooking adventures. Stay tunned for a lot of interesting recipes, original or adapted from my very rich collection of cookbooks.

Besides the hand-made spices, they also create award winning teas, which ranges from Earl Grey to Strawberries&Cream. Spice Kitchen UK is also involved in supporting several charities. It also concerned about the environment, as most of the packaging is recycled from other local businesses, in order to reduce the environmental impact and carbon footprint as much as possible.

My package included a very exquisite mix of spices, many of them in my kitchen for the first time: Baharat - a rich Middle Eastern spice mix combining black peppercorns, cadamom, cassia, cloves, coriander, cumin, nutmeg and paprika; Isot Pepper (Urfa Biber) - a dried Turkish pepper with a deep raisin, smokey flavour; Harissa - a fiery North African chill mix with dried red chilli, garlic, coriander, paprika and caraway; Star Anise; Berbere - one of the building blocks of Ethiopian cuisine, combining red chilli, garlic, coriander seeds, fenugreek, black peppercorns, cloves, paprika, onion powder, black cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and salt; Aleppo Pepper - dried chilli flakes wtih a hint of cherry-like fruitiness; Carom Seeds; Sumac; Za'atar - the first time when I will use for the regular cooking other za'atar than the usually one brought to me from Israel; Ras el Hanout - a traditional blend from Morocco, with lots of ingredients such as turmeric, paprika, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, sugar, all spice, chilli powder, star anise, cloves, rose petals; Fenugreek. 

And yes, my future in the kitchen sounds as amazing as it smells!
What I also liked a lot about the small packages was that there are hints about where to use them, for salads or meats, which is very helpful, especially for those who are wondering how to match them.

Initially I wanted to start my adventure the next week, but as I was in the middle of preparing the breakfast, I couldn't resist to not start already playing with my spices. I began by spreading a discrete pinch of Aleppo Pepper on my avocado toast. And from now on, there will be no other garnish to my avocado toast. 

The fruity, spicy flavor of the pepper - you need to use only a little bit - interacted perfectly with the crunchy texture of the bread and the fatness of the avocado. It makes it into a great balance, bringing it some fruity sparkling that stays with you for longer. 

A great choice and I am happy that I followed my creative mind for trying this combination. My first encounter with Aleppo Pepper, a spice that I wanted to try for such a long time, was also special and can't wait to give more substance to my foodie dreams. 

Disclaimer: Spices offered by Spice Kitchen UK for review, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Chicken Liver with Boiled Potatoes and a Pinch of Berbere Spices

Let's talk about the most hateful children foods. For me, the top of the list was liver, any kind of liver, followed by spinach and lamb too. However, I am trying little by little to come along with those foods simply through the act of cooking them. Spinach is getting better, lamb I can accept once in a while, but the liver...it is a very hard job.

I still remember how desperate my poor mother was when once while cleaning the house discovered on the back of the coach small pieces from the very expensive and much praised liver she fought hard to get it on our table. Times changed and I am living now in a place where I can much easier find some kosher liver, but my relationship with this food was never better. Only the sight of the bloody liver - and the memory of the metallic taste (after all, liver operates as a sponge where all the toxines in the body are filtered and it is also that part of the body with the highest concentration of blood, which does not go away even though kashering) made me instantly puke. 

But there are some good healthy advantages of eating liver too, the most important being the high-concentration of iron, which is a great immunity boost. For the love of my son, though, I may change a lot of things in my life - and my diet too, therefore I gave my first ever try at cooking chicken liver myself. And eating it too, for the first time in over 16 years (yeah, I was a teen when I had it last). To be honest, it wasn't that bad - maybe the touch of Berbere spices from Spice Kitchen UK changed everything, who knows - and combined with some simple boiled potato and fresh slices of tomatoes was actually a very rich meaty meal. All you need to know is that you may need a lot of time for boiling and frying the liver, in order to be sure that the blood is going out. The combination of the Berbere spices (red chilli, garlic, coriander seeds, fenugreek, black peppercorns, cloves, paprika, onion powder, black cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, all spices and salt) with fried onions, oil and paprika challenged for good the original liver good. 

Ingredients
2 tablespoon cooking oil
1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
1 medium-sized yellow bell pepper sliced
600 gr. chicken liver, frozen
2 tablespoon Berbere spices
1 tablespoon lemon juice - it helps when the meat is frozen as it may have a specific unpleasant taste

Directions

Pre-heat the oil in the pan for about 10 minutes. Add the onions and fry until golden. Add the paprika and keep mixing for another couple of minutes. Add the liver, the Berbere spices and 1 big cup of water and let to boil. Mix once in a while, to be sure that the ingredients mix well. Boil until the liver gets a dark brown colour. 

I personally prefered to balance the liver taste with some fresh veggies and the boiled potato. Mashed potatoes also work, or some green salad or avocado. I would dare to add even some couscous or boiled carrots. The most important is to do not have a flavor overload, but only to find that right balance between different ingredients. 

Verdict? As I will not change too much my opinion about liver -it would take another century until I will think about doing my own beef liver anyway and tasting it too - for health reasons I would actually love to try it at least a couple of times the year. With Pesach holidays coming up in a couple of weeks only, I would probably include the chicken liver on one of my regular menus for this time of the Jewish year. 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour or until ready
Serves: 3

Bon Appétit!

3 Ways to Use Your Sumac Spices

If you are having a tasty visit to any of the genuine Middle Eastern - especially Persian - restaurants, you may find on the table in addition to salt and pepper, also a reddish powder. It is sumac, made of red berries and sprinkled over a variety of foods, from salads to lamb, chicken and fish. It has a fruity salty taste, which may create a good balance by the marinade and add a fresh note to the hummus or fattoush. 

Part of my mission of brand ambassador for the multi-awarded Spice Kitchen UK, I included sumac as part of my list of favorite spices. Exciting adventure, as before that, I only shyly tried sumac in restaurants but never experienced its texture and flavor on my own.

Therefore, my first encouter involved learning how to use it in some easy, classical combinations, but as soon as I got a strong foot on the spicy ground, I moved forward creating one unique - and unusual - recipe. 

Here are my three ways to use sumac in the kitchen. And it is just the beginning, as I feel bold enough to try even more creative recipes. Wait and see until the end of the post...

Summer salad

Summer was amazingly long in my part of the world, which allowed me - when I was not relaxing in the countryside - to create a couple of healthy recipes. I substituted salt with sumac which added even more freshness and a special taste to the salad. My favorite variant that I will keep doing it regardless of the season involved: finely chopped cucumber, canned corn, and finely chopped small tomatoes. The amount of sumac is on taste, but I personally added 1/4 teaspoon. No oil, no balsamico. Just those veggies and the fresh touch of sumac.

Rice

If you grew up with rice - which I didn't - you don't need to read cooking books to learn how to properly boil it or what spices to add. I did the hard way - and don't regret it - which also involved that I needed a lot of time to properly learn how to prepare and use basic cooking ingredients, such as rice. My favorite combination involved jasmin rice with a generous sprinkle of sumac on the top. To be served as a separate meal, or in combination with chicken or fish. As I usually find rice bland and tasteless - the water among the meals - sumac is a welcomed diversion which makes me reconsider the flavor qualities of the rice.

Banana smoothie with tahini and sumac on the top (yes, you've read it right!) 

And now, the exciting recipe is finally coming, after writing what an experienced cook will rightfully call 'platitudes'. This latest combination I tried - over and over again - this weekend and I confirm it is so tasty that my guests convinced me that I definitely need to share the recipe as well. It also uses an ingredient which is so popular nowadays - tahini, especially in addition to sweets. I've personally found it a very special smoothie, with an unforgettable taste. 

Ingredients:

400 ml. canned coconut milk

2 1/2 big size banana, cut into cubes

1 teaspoon tehina

1 teaspoon brown sugar or honey - if you want some extra sweetness

1/4 teaspoon sumac

Directions

In the blender, add the coconut milk, the banana, tehina and sugar. Mix them well at moderate speed for maximum 3 minutes. Pour into glasses, add the sumac on top and let it to rest in the fridge, at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Serves: 3

Disclaimer: Spices offered by Spice Kitchen UK for review, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

For the Love of the Duck. The Spicy Peking Duck with My Homemade Plum Sauce

Although not sharing too many meaty recipes on the blog and often eating a (kosher) meat dish only once the week, I am a big meat lover. From the traditional pastrami to various meatballs and spicy kitchen to my favorite one, the duck, you only have to be lamb to make me think twice before eating it. 

Acknowledging my weakness, my good friend is preparing at least once the year for me a special duck meal, which involves the same big headless one, cleaned and kashered, to which different spices and sauces are added. This year, it was the climax of spices, as in the previous years she only added chestnuts and plums. Although I was part of the preparation, I only added and suggested various spices and the recipe shared is the idea of my friend. My full contribution - recipe wise including - was the plum sauce and the discovery of the delicious Pancakes for Crispy Duck from Ming Foods, with kosher stamp from London Beit Din, that matched excellently my oyster mushrooms filling. 

Unfortunatelly, as the final result and its consumption was ready to be served on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, I couldn't take pictures of it - during the holiday using electronic tools is not permitted - so I cannot share all the awesomeness. However, I bet that even the photo opps were allowed, it was delicious enough to make me forget about blogging and writing. The duck disappeared from our eyes in less than 30 minutes...

Ingredients

- 1 big kosher duck - around 2.5 kg, trimmed and cleaned in boiled water

- 3 tablespoon sunflower oil

- 3 star anise

- 1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger, crushed

- 2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed

- 3 tablespoon apple juice

- 1 tablespoon brown sugar 

- 4 tablespoon soy sauce

- 2 tablespoon turmeric

- 1 tablespoon salt

- 1 tablespoon pepper

Directions

In a preheated pan at 250C, add the oil, the star anise, and the rest of the ingredients, one by one. Mix them well. Pour them on the duck and leave the duck to marinate for 2 hours, changing the position every 20-30 minutes or so and smearing the sauce all over the duck. If you have enough time, you can also leave it soak overnight and prepare it the next day.

Cook it in the oven until crips - at least for 2 hours, at 250C.

Preparation time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 2-3 hours

Serves: 8 people

Pancakes for Crispy Duck

Those Ming Foods pancakes are the right company for the crispy duck. They are thin, with a touch of gluten taste, easy to prepare and requiring the right amount of filling for an unforgettable gourmet experience.

Recipe for the Plum Sauce

It was my first plum sauce experience and I loved so much the result that I would probably try my hand with some jams or other unusual sauces to add to meats or veggies. Although I was very spare with the sugar and sweetness, given that I knew that the duck is wrapped in so many sweet flavours, so I wanted to give a savory note.

Ingredients

- 500 gr. medium-size fresh plums, quartered

- 1 cup red wine. I used the Bordeaux Marquis de Greyssac

- 1 tablespoon star anise, powder

- 1/2 tablespoon Berbere spices, courtesy of Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program

On taste, if you want your sauce sweet, you can also add 1/2 cup brown or white sugar or even 3 full tablespoon of honey.

Directions

In a preheated pan at 250C, add the wine, the star anise, the Berbere spices and the plums. Mix them well every couple of minutes until soft. Let them boil for at least 40 minutes. It's ready when the mixture looks like a jam. Let it rest and serve it at the room temperature. 

Preparation time:

45 minutes - 1 hour

Serves: It files around 20 wraps

Additional ingredients for the wraps

In order to give some more freshness to the wrap combination, you can add fresh slices of cucumber or sliced tomatoes.

Bon Appétit!

Playing with Spices - something good for your potatoes (part II)

A new week, a new couple of challenges in the kitchen. For the last seven days I looked for simple yet healthy recipes, that are self sufficient. This happens all the time when I don't have too much time for cooking: one meal might be enough, but it should be a good and nourishing one.

The star of the week were the potatoes, that have the advantage of being prepared very fast. All you need to do after is to add a little bit of spices. 

This portion of potatoes can be prepared within 40 minutes. It serves around 3 hungry citizens. After I roasted the potatoes in the oven at 250C for 30 minutes - the shapes can differ from plate to another - I added pistachio oil, 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper and 1/4 teaspoon Gram Masala - a spice that I am more and more in love with. Mix it well and leave in the oven for another 15 minutes at the same high temperature. To be served with a healthy portion of cherry tomatoes and avocado. It goes very well with Greek yoghurt too. It is good cold or heated at medium temperature.

As a side dish, I prepared the other day some salmon, with some Thymian salt from Jamie Oliver and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin/coriander. 

The next recipe is very rich in ingredients and spices. I was looking for ideas putting on trial my cooking skills and with enough spices to make the fridge and the kitchen smell beautifully. At the end, I decided to use two recipes from the famous German Curry cookbook (pp. 34-35). 

Ingredients: 

8 big potatoes

250 gr. tomatoes finely cut

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/4 tablespoon chilli powder

1 fresh zucchini cut

17 small mushrooms

1/4 teaspoon tumeric 

100 gr. salted cashews

100 gr. veggie margarine

2 slices of fresh ginger

7 small curry leaves

150 ml. pistachio oil

parsley, on taste

Serves: 3

Preparation: 1 hour

Directions:

Roast the potatoes and the chilli powder in the oven at 250C for 20 minutes. 

The garlic and tumeric are fried in a pan with 1 teaspoon of pistachio oil for around 6 minutes at 150C.

Meanwhile, get the tomato sauce out of the tomatoes in the mixer, at medium temperature, for maximum 2 minutes.

Fry the zucchini with the mushrooms in a pan at 150C for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and tumeric, the cashews, the margarine and the ginger. Mix well the ingredients for another 5-6 minutes. Add the curry leaves and the tomato sauce and mix for another 3 minutes. It is very important to mix everything well in order to create the good mixture of tastes and flavours. 

At the end, add the potatoes and mix for another 10 minutes at 150C. 

Add the parsley leaves.

To be served hot or cold, with or without side dishes, preferably some veggie salad or any kind of meat. 

A glass of white wine goes together well too. 

Bon Appétit!

I was offered a pack of spices from Spice Kitchen UK, but the opinions are, as usual, my own.

Red Beet Salad with Berbere Spices and Olive Oil

I cannot figure out how my gourmet life was before I started discovering spices. Most probably it was undernourished, bland, unattractive and tasteless. For someone like me, with a complicated personal history to foods, that pinch of spice added to a plate dramatically changed the taste for good. Spices create unforgettable taste memories that stay with you at least until the next spicy experiment. The more I explore this world of flavors and fragrances, the more I realize how infinite the possibilities of matching and combining are.

As this year I was selected as one of the brand ambassador for the multi-awarded Spice Kitchen UK, my newly discovered passion for spices got a professional direction, as I have to work hard to combine the flavors with usual foods I am using regularly in my kitchen. The experiences are unique, as it gives a completely new life to foods that I was very reluctant to try and prepare before. For instance, red beet. My Eastern European heritage didn't change the fact that I simply cannot stand the smell of it. As for the taste, I find it completely bland - boring, in literary terms - therefore, on the list of 'you better no bother to bring them at home'. Anyway, boiling and preparing them may involve a lot of red traces as...they are called red beets  for a reason. I love a good cold borscht, but preferably prepared by my Russian/Ukrainian friends.

All being said, have no idea what happened to me to decide spontaneoulsy yesterday to purchase some little round dirty looking red beets. Maybe the fact that I haven't created anything worth in my kitchen for a long while, or that the Jewish New Year, the Rosh Hashanah is approaching and needed to boost a bit my creativity? Not sure, but I decided to make the effort and brought the small little something at home. A salad - with olive oil, mint and salt - was an easy solution, but I was looking for something more memorable, able to create those food memories that I may long for in my non-foodie moments. 

As usual in such situation, a look into my spices' cabinet always helps. This time, I wanted a perfect spice, which challenges the original down-to-earth taste of the beets. Aleppo Pepper was a bit too simple while the sumac with its fruity waves was not strong enough to add something to the original taste and the risk was that it gets simply lost into the strong beets flavor. Couple of more minutes of deliberation and I finally set for for Berbere, a spice that I didn't explored too much until now. An basic ingredient in the Ethiopian and Eritrean kitchen, it adds hotness to the meals, with its exquisite combination of: chili pepper, garlic, ginger, basil, nigelly, fenugreek, onion cardamom. A fantastic mix that promised to alter and enrich the red beet.

Once everything was settled, let's start the hard spicy work!

Ingredients

4 small red beets

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon Berbere spice

Directions

Peel the beets. Add them to hot boiling salty water and let them to boil until tender. Once ready, cut it into small slices. Add the olive oil and mix. Spread the Berbere spice and mix. Let it rest at least 20 minutes before serving. Serve it either at the room temperature or cooled in the fridge.

The result: mindblowing! It kept from the original red beet flavor the sweetness and added it to the hotness of the other ingredients. This modest salad was a star at my table. Although I used it as a started, it goes very well as a side dish for salmon or for various mets.

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: The beets need at least one hour to boil properly. 

Bon Appétit!

Baked Eggplant with Cheddar Cheese

My and eggplant...we have a very complicated story between us, but I keep doing it as much as I can, especially when my hungry imagination is ready to add some spices that may challenge my first (bad) impression about it. 

This time, I wanted to test my new Zwilling, a present from a dear friend, and decided that, among other things that I am planning to prepare, eggplant is the easiest, affordable one. Especially when some spices, courtesy of Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program are added. The result was surprisingly tasty, rich in flavors and made it into a good side dish for a milky-/cheese-based meal. I will only add some fresh cucumber and tomato salad, for a touch of freshness and call it a good meal! 

Ingredients

- 1 medium-sized eggplant
- 3 cloves garlic, finelly minced
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Fenugreek
- 1/2 teaspoon Berbere which are a combination of many spices, such as red chilli, garlic, black peppercorns, cardamom, onion. It also has fenugreek, but I personally wanted a stronger presence of this spice, therefore I added it as a separate ingredient too.
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 slices of Cheddar Cheese - you can also use Edamer Cheese and any other hard cheese variant.

Directions

Roast the eggplant on the stove at 250C, turning it on all sides at least for 45 minutes. Peel it well, careful to clean all the black parts. Slice it and put it into the baking pan. Warm the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Add the lemon zest, the salt, the spices, the garlic. Be sure that you turn the eggplant on both sides to smear the ingredients properly. Add the cheese on the top.

Bake it for around 45 minutes. 

Serve it warm. The spices and the lemon zest add a complex, sweet-sour taste and consistency to the eggplant. 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: Roasting: 45 minutes. Baking: 45 minutes

Serves: 2

Bon Appétit!

A Touch of Urfa Biber to Your Asparagus

Asparagus - or spargel, in German - is one of those foods that I can easily live without, but once the year, when the season is in full bloom - mid-May and end of June - I want to try it, for creating at least one new recipe. In most cases, I consider it a relatively bland food, without any special features and no taste to long about for the rest of the year.

This year, I tried to use my treasure of spices from the multi-awarded Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program. Not an easy choice given their exquisite collection of top spices, but in the end I decided to add to my hard boiled - 25 minutes at 250C - asparagus the Urfa Biber (Isot Pepper). Part of the red pepper family, this spice adds a mild flavor to the dish, not too salty, not too hot, just that pinch that bring taste to the otherwise neutral asparagus. I usually add salt - especially when matchen with boiled potatoes, but this time it was just enough to bring the healthy life - read it taste - to my dish. All you need is half teaspoon of this magic black spice spread all over your dish.

You can pair it with a cold white wine and life couldn't get any better... 

Disclaimer: Spices offered by Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

For the Love of Curry. Interview with Dan Toombs aka 'The Curry Guy'

Curry is tasty but not everyone can understand and cook it properly. Especially when you didn't grow up with the original flavors and meal textures. A British favourite, this food is a delight and a challenge for chefs. Dan Toombs, aka The Curry Guy, dedicates most of his professional time to explore this delicious meal. His latest book, available at Watersones, treats extensively about it, and he promises it is not his last. In an interview for Boiled Words he shared some of his thoughts and love for this exquisite dish. You can follow him on Twitter as (predictably) @TheCurryGuy or you can read more about his adventures on his blog.

How did your love for curry start?

I grew up in California and loved Mexican food. I cooked it all the time so cooking with different spices and chillies has always been something I enjoyed. When I moved to the UK, I was introduced to Indian food. It was new and exciting. I had to learn how to cook it. I liked it because so many of the spices and chillies that are used in Mexican food are also used in Indian food. It was so different to me but also strangely familiar.

What is your favorite curry recipe?

My favourite curry changes all the time. I’ve learned and developed so many recipes since starting my blog so I’m always finding new curries I really like. My current favourite is lamb nihari which is in my cookbook. I make it all the time for dinner guests. I love the spice mixture and the lamb shank meat that is fall off the bone tender.

At what extent the original curry recipes were adapted to the Western tastes? For instance, while traveling on Thailand, I noticed how different the original Thai food is from the usual meals labelled as such served in European restaurants...

The origin of curry house style food as we know it in the UK dates back to the late 40s when many immigrants from the Indian subcontinent purchased bombed out fish and chip shops after at the end of WW2. They served mainly British food but also began serving Indian inspired dishes to other immigrants. Spices were difficult and expensive to come by so often a curry might just be a beef stew with some curry powder stirred in. This ‘Indian’ food began to catch on with some of the general public.

In the 60s, 70s and 80s, restauranteurs began catering to the after pub crowd. The pubs had to close at 11pm, but at restaurants where food was being served, people could continue drinking. Going out for a curry after the pub closed became the thing to do, more for the drink than the food but the food did begin to catch on. With more and more people going out for a curry after the pub, restaurateurs needed to develop a way of serving people quickly and cheaply. They tailored recipes to the British taste cooking meat off the bone and using a lot of sauce. They developed a base curry sauce which was used in almost every curry from mild korma to the spiciest phaal. These recipes were passed down from chef to chef which helped standardize the recipes. This is why if you order a chicken korma in Edinburgh or London, you have a good idea what your curry will look and taste like.

What was the most challenging part of writing this cookbook?

I think it was trying to make all the essential preparation for cooking curry house style curries, both interesting and something people would want to try. The only way to match the flavour and texture of a British curry house curry is to prepare a base curry sauce. It is one of the things that make British curries different to what you would be served in the Indian subcontinent. The sauce is bland like a chicken stock but it can be used in so many different curries. Also the idea of pre-cooking meats and vegetables can seem like one step too far for some, but it must be done to get that flavour and ensure you can cook curries quickly and easily just like the chefs do at your local curry house.

What are your next plans as a chef?

I am currently writing my second cookbook. It will be published by Quadrille Publishing in May 2018. The working title is ‘Curry Guy Easy’ though that might change. The book featured over one hundred more curry house style recipes. Curry house cooking was developed for ease, efficiency and economy so it has been a bit of a challenge making the recipes even easier to make while not compromising flavour. I think I’ve done it.

Spicy Cauliflower with Black Sesame

Cauliflower is such an easy match for a variety of flavors, especially spices, allowing the culinary imagination to easily fly away. My experience - although limited - is that you rarely can get it wrong with cauliflower, such a versatile vegetable which keeps a good and healthy company to heavy meals. I've tried this recipe during the Hanukka holidays, when everything is filled with oil and was in desperate need of some healthy side dish. 

Ingredients

1 medium-sized cauliflower, with separated florets

1 teaspoon za'atar

1 teaspoon Berbere spices, received part of Spice Kitchen UK Brand Ambassador Program

1 teaspoon black sesame

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Warm the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. On a sheet pan, smear the florets with olive oil - preferably on both sides, then add the various spices and the salt, also on both sides. Let it bake while turning from a part to another every 10 minutes. When ready, add the black sesame and mix it a couple of times.

Cooking time

30 minutes

Preparation time

10 minutes

It makes it a good side dish for both meaty and diary menus. Especially for the latkes, it was my favorite companion. You can also serve it as an entrée, together with a fresh salad - cherry tomatoes with cucumber, with or without oil. The Berbere spices are giving to the meal such a heavy consistency that it changes completely the otherwise bland cauliflower flavor. 

Bon Appétit!

Spicy Sweet Potatoes with Onions and Zucchini

It started as an experiment: I was trying to match my heavily spicy hamburgers. Although an easy tomatoes and cucumber salad would have been enough, I was ready for some more spices. This time, added to my plate of veggies.

Ingredients
- 3 big sweet potatoes, peeled
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 1 big zucchini, cut into rounds
- 1 medim-size white onion, finelly chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Ras el-Hanout from Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program
- 2 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions
Preheat the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Add the baking paper to the pan. Add one by one the veggies, and mix them well. Sprinkle the oil, the salt, pepper and the spices. Let it cook until ready, turning the veggies on all sides every 20 minutes or so.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1h30

I've personally found this mix as a great addition to my meaty plate, but it can also be served as an individual dish. The eclectic Ras el-Hanout - the crown of North African Spices, which includes at least 30 ingredients as diverse as cardamom, anise, ginger, turmeric and nutmeg - adds a complex taste to the dish. It balances the sweetness of the potatoes and diminishes the strong flavor of onions, with a sweet, mild note. Especially recommended to spices' lovers, but also to anyone looking to experiment rich, new flavors. 

Bon Appétit!

The Tarot of Cocktails...and a Milky Moon

'As the bearer of this book, you are most fortunate - there are many fine cocktails in your future'.

Who doesn't want to see a fine cocktail in his or her future? Summer or winter, autumn or spring, to celebrate or to mourn, a cocktail is a challenge for the palate and a great way to put your culinary imagination at work. As someone so much in love with the spices, I couldn't stop using them outside the usual savory or sweet edible recipes, and trying my hand on cocktails is the next stage of personal achievement. 

'Like a spread of tarot cards, a cocktail combines different components - each with a unique role to play, a flavor or texture to contribute - and that purpose changes depending on the combination and quantities of ingredients. The ritual involves certain instruments, careful measurements, an alchemy of ingredients, and an order of operations. There's a science to that, but there is magic in the mix, too'. 

Inspired by tarot cards, the 45 'Divine Drink Recipes' by Katy Seibel offers a lot of great tips and invites to unique flavors. For instance, mixing scotch and camomille tea or adding a touch to bell pepper juice to an alcoholic drink. What about mixing red beet and vodka? For me, it was an unique lesson in cocktails basics, starting with the tools, the precise measurements but also the acknowledging of some unique products such as fig butter or Cynar - an Italian liqueur made of artichokes. 

Accompanied by lavish photos, the recipes are relatively simple, if you have the right ingredients and spices. A great recommendation to anyone looking to try something new this autumn.

There are a couple of recipes I have on my list for coming posts, but as for now, my first cocktail achievement was The Milky Moon. 

It is described in the book: 'Calming and familiar with an air of the afar, this take on a classic milk punch draws influence from masala chai'.

Ingredients

2 ounces - around 50 gr. - whole milk. An alternative version is also fine, although I personally thing that almond milk or rice milk or any other kind of substitutes may change completely the final taste.

3 ounches - chai tea concentrate

1 1/2 ounces gold rum. I used a German brand, Nordbrand Nordhausen Goldbrand - Mild. 

pinch of ground cardamom

small pinch of salt

small pinch of ground black pepper

Garnish 

2 star anise from Spice Kitchen UK, received part of their Brand Ambassador Program   

An ice cube or two is also more than welcomed, especially if you plan to sip it in a summer evening.

Technique (mine, as I did not follow fully the directions described in the book)

Add the milk, rum and spices and shake them well. Let it rest for a couple of minutes and serve it in a glass, with the garnish and ice cube.

The result: although the taste of rum stays strong and dominates the drink, the milk and the spices are bringing more nuances and elegance to the drink. It is an unique flavor, which reveals sip by sip.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Disclaimer: The book was offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

About a Different Kind of Pepper: Urfa Biber (Isot Pepper)

This is less a post about recipes and cooking ideas, but has as main character a very special kind of pepper: Urfa Biber or Isot Pepper. Part of my selection from the Spice Kitchen UK collection, with whom I've entered a partnership part of their Brand Ambassador program, I've received a couple of spices to test in the next weeks and months, starting with the very special Aleppo pepper.

The inspiration of Monday's lunch was something a bit different: a very black looking powder called Urfa Biber. Biber means pepper in Turkish, the country of origin of this special kind of pepper. Practically, it is part of the red pepper family, produced through a process of 'sweating': drying of the seeds during the day, followed by wrapping them tied during the day. Compared to other peppers, they are less spicy, with a warm note which creates a pleasant balance of flavors. 

I used it twice for my lunch: spread modestly on my fresh tomatoes, and as one pinch used for by very special barberry rice - 1 cup Jasmin rice, plus 25 gr. dried barberries (or Berberizen as they are called in German). The other part of the meal were Turkey cevapcici, brought to me by the kosher meat Of Tov company. Especially in the case of the rice, the urfa biber was a great balance to the mild sparkling taste of barberries, without pungency of any kind. Given that the day before I had a 25 km. hiking this meal was not only easy to prepare but also full of energy and fresh vitamins (barberries are rich in Vitamin C). 

As for the urfa biber, my short documentation indicates that it has a great variety of uses, among which: on roasted eggplants, fried eggs, but also brownies. Testing in process so keep an eye on my blog for updates.

Disclaimer: Spices offered by Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Boiled chickpeas with spices

I was looking for an easy side dish and I realized that for a long I wanted to play with some chickpeas. As hummus is a well tried and relatively successful recipe, I wanted something a little bit different but still easy. What about some boiled chickpeas with spices, an idea I had in mind for a long time.

The first stage is the boiling of the chickpeas. 

For 3 persons, I boiled 200 gr. As usual, I added a 1/4 teaspoon of salt in the water. In addition, for taste, 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil. Let it boil for around 15 minutes. 

I left the chickpeas in the water for around 1 hour.

In a frying pan, I added:

1 teaspoon of Gran Masala

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon of olive oil

I mixed all for around 7 minutes at 150C. 

Add the soaked chickpeas and mix together for another 10 minutes.

The smell in the kitchen was as beautiful as an Oriental dream.

It can match a variety of meals, from salads, meat or fish.

Bon Appétit!

I was offered spices to test from Spice Kitchen UK, but the opinions are, as usual, my own. 

Playing with spices (Part I)

The crushed pistachios were added to each recipe

I have a big collection of spices from all over the world at home, and trying to get along with each flavour is part of a daily practice that I want to acquire. The winter time is most recommended for various combinations especially because the weather allows long hours of cooking. 

The two weeks ago Friday evening menu included a delicacy that I cannot find easily here: kosher turkey that was simply prepared in the oven, with some olive oil poured over it and some Indian Garam Masala that gave a special delicious nutty flavour.  

Such a delicious treat needs some side dishes and I was offered another occasion to create a dream recipe I was thinking about for a long time: couscous with raisins. I am not a big fan of raisins, but in the case of this recipe, it goes very well as the taste matches all the other ingredients.
The recipe can be prepared in around 20 minutes and serves 5.

Here are the directions I followed: 

2 tablespoon olive oil and 1 spoon cumin are mixed and fried in a pan heated at 150C, for 5 minutes.
Add 20 crushed pistachios in the pan for another 2 minutes

In the next minutes pour and mix together: 200 ml water, 250 gr. couscous grains, 1/4 tablespoon kosher salt. If necessary and the couscous is absorbing the water too fast, add another 250 ml. water after 10 minutes. 

2 beaten eggs

2 tablespoon raisins

Mix the composition carefully in order to avoid getting too sticky or burned.

To be served cold or hot, adorned with some fresh coriander. 

For the next recipe, I needed to prepare first the oil: 2-3 tablespoons olive oil with 1/2 teaspoon cumin, mixed well. 

In a frying pan add: 6 medium potatoes cut in 8 little pieces, 20 crushed pistachios. Paint the potatoes on all sizes with the  oil and cumin prepared before. Bake them at 250C - around 30 minutes. It serves two and it goes very well with fresh coriander.

I needed also a salad, and the simplest I had in my mind was the following: 250 gr. cherry tomatoes, sliced in 4; 25 crushed pistachios; 3 tablespoon olive oil; 150 gr. corn; 1 generous bunch of coriander. The preparation takes around 15 minutes and it serves two hungry adults. Add some salt on taste if needed. 

I was offered a package of spices to try by Spice Kitchen UK, but the opinions are, as usual, exclusively my own. 

To be continued...

Couscous Salad with Ras-el-Hanout and 'Kofu'

When I don't travel in the Middle East, I am trying to bring the Middle East to my home - or to my plate, to be more precise. With my bag full of spices from Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Programme, I am bringing the rich world of flavour of the East to my West-Berlin kitchen. 

And there are many opportunities coming to my door, almost begging me to take them, prepare them and further share them with my readers. A couple of weeks ago, I've purchased from a local store Kofu, produced in Berlin, using the culinary wisdom of Israel. It is a special kind of tofu, using chickpeas flour. Available in different variants, including simple, mine was the falafel-one, which means that it has the usual spices used for the preparation of this special Oriental dish. I am generally very skeptical when it comes to the non-Asian attempts of producing tofu - I've tried way too much from the Bio sortiment and none was really satisfactory compared to the usual original results. Kofu seems to be a completely different story with an unique taste, not necessarily the usual soybean one, but healthy, smooth and adaptable enough to a variety of ingredients and dishes.

Another great discovery I had is that there is a before and after using Ras-el-Hanout in your couscous everything. This spice made of dozen of ingredients - among which cardamom, rose petals, paprika salt, ginger, coriander, cloves and turmeric, to mention only few of them - gives actually THE taste to the couscous. All the other occassions when you had this typical Moroccan dish are past and not a very glorious one. Ras-el-Hanout brings flavour, strength and unique memories to your plate. With every single bite of my couscous dish I felt like being back from a long - foodie - sleep. All the years when I only added salt, or only za'atar were a nightmare, as nothing compares to taste revelation of a couscous done right. Feel free to try by yourself and you will experience by yourself this unusual enthusiasm. 

The salad I prepared is easy, can be prepared in less than one hour and can be eaten both cold and warm, alone or in combination with meat - preferably chicken, in the summer as during the winter, as part of the lunch or the dinner menu. It suits the vegan or vegetarian, the healthy mother or child.

Ingredients

- 1 cup couscous

- 1/4 cup tablespoon cooking oil

- 2 medium-size eggs, beaten

- 10 small can champignons, halved

- 1/2 tablespoon Ras-el-Hanout spice

- 1 pinch salt

- 1/2 cup lemon zest

- 2 medium-size tomatoes, finelly cut

- 125 gr. Kofu Falafel-flavored tofu, cubed

Directions

In a medium-sized pan, add the oil, and let it fry, at least 10 minutes before starting to cook, at 250C. Add the couscous and eggs and 1 cup water and stir slowly. Add the Ras-el-Hanout and salt and lemon zest, and keep mixing every couple of minutes.

On another pan, slowly fry first the champignons and on another, the cubed Kofu. You can either fry them deep or just warm them a little bit. Once ready, add them to the bowl. 

In the bowl, add the couscous, the tomatoes and the other ingredients and mix them well.

Your healthy meal is ready!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking: 30 minutes

Serves: 3

Bon Appétit!