Cooking with spice mixes, pastes and sauces

Shallots is a favourite of all cuisines of Southeast Asia and is used more often than onion or green onion. Shallots is used for making pastes, marinades and sauces. In most cases, it is cut into small cubes and fried, thereby flavoring the oil for a future paste. The taste of shallots is much softer than that of the onion, and some varieties have a characteristic sweet flavor.

Kaffir Lime or a more accurate Asian name is a Makrut. This fruit plays a huge role in various pan-Asian pastes. All the parts of this fruit are used in cooking – zest and juice, as well as leaves (which are pre-cut or torn) to flavor pastes. This kind of lime is difficult to find in Western countries, so it is replaced by the usual lime. Although it is very undesirable to do this, since usual lime does not give that peculiar taste and aroma as kaffir lime does. The leaves have a delicate floral aroma with a mix of citrus notes – lemon and lime. The zest is slightly bitter, and its juice is very acidic. Therefore, the main value of this lime for cooking is its leaves, which are a major ingredient in the most popular Thai tom yum soup.

Flavoring herbs such as mint, basil and cilantro are a very important part of many pastes. Herbs have a beneficial effect on the flavor and aroma of the pastes, and they change the color. Usually the herbs are finely chopped or crushed in a blender.

Tamarind paste in a majority of cases is applied as acidifying agent and is used for cooking of pastes, including chutney. This paste is unreplaceable and it is extremely hard to cook at home. Therefore, to make a pastes with tamarind it is necessary to purchase it in advance. Tamarind itself almost doesn’t have an aroma but it has a sour taste with fruity notes.

Shrimp paste, just as tamarind paste, is used for making curry pastes. The shrimp paste is sold in a form of liquid paste or compressed paste. After opening, shrimp paste can radiate the smell of rotten fish, but this unpleasant odor disappears after heat treatment. Therefore, in most cases, it should be warmed before use, even if this is not mentioned in the recipe. Both pastes are important components of eastern cuisine and are able to enrich any dish with spicy Asian notes.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF CHILI PEPPERS

Chili pepper is an essential part of not only spice blends, but of all the cooking in general. In every part of the world you can find a national dish that contains these aromatic pods of different pungency level. It doesn’t matter what kind of chili you use as you can easily control its pungency by just extracting its seeds and septum. Keep in mind that while cutting fresh chili pod for extracting seeds, you are at a risk of burning your skin if flesh gets there. And that might cause discomfort. I highly recommend using disposable latex or vinyl gloves when working with pungent types of chili pepper to protect your skin from unpleasant consequences. After completing the procedure with chili and disposal of gloves, you should thoroughly wash your hands with soap. And you should immediately wash the knife and cutting board that were used for chili peppers processing.

In case if some chili parts got to your skin, then you can prevent burns by applying vegetable oil to the damaged area and then rinsing under warm water. The substance that containing in the chili does not dissolve in water, however it does in oil. It will help to release your skin from the remains of pungent substance and water, in its turn, will wash the oil off.

If you ate too much chili, do not try to get rid of burning in your mouth with the help of water. It will get worse and your while mouth will be burning. What you need to do is to drink a glass of cold milk or any other dairy product, such as yogurt.

Soon, you are going to get familiar with different kinds of chili that may be in many different forms, such as fresh, smoked and canned, dried and ground. The same chili pepper taste and aroma can be principally different depending on its form. In some cases, pepper is added to the dish in a whole and in other cases it may be finely chopped. Often, taste of chili can only get better when seeds are removed and sometimes chili flavor can change dramatically once it is roasted or baked in the oven. Chili should go through heat treatment in cases it has thick rough peel or when it is necessary to give it a charred or smoked flavor. You should never rinse chili after roasting. If you need to remove pieces of burned peel, just use a paper towel for this purpose.

Sometimes it is better to freeze chili after roasting. This will help to easily peel it after defrosting.

Capsaicine is a substance containing in chili peppers. Pepper pungency level depends on this substance. Most of this substance, as already mentioned above, is contained in seeds and septum. Therefore, to lower pepper pungency lever down one needs to remove the seeds and septum. To remove the seeds, cut the chili in half along the pod with a small knife and gently remove the seeds and cut the septum off.

Dried chili pods are as much popular in cooking as fresh ones. They are usually roasted from all sides till they get specific dark color. Then they are soaked in water for 30-60 minutes, and then processed in a blender to the required texture. As in the case with fresh chili, removing the seeds will reduce its pungency. It is recommended remove the seeds first, and then continue remaining stages of processing the pepper: frying, soaking and chopping.

I am going to describe only the main species of chili that are widely used in spice blends making.

Aleppo Pepper. This sort of chili pepper originates in Syria and nowadays is it very popular all over the Mediterranean. The pod has a medium pungency level and a slight note of citrus. Its pungency decrease after grinding. This pepper is an excellent kind for those who is just starting to get familiar with an amazing world of chili peppers. I highly recommend switching your usual hot pepper powder stored in your kitchen into Aleppo. You will certainly appreciate this sort of pepper whether it is a single spice or a spice mix. The slightly curved pod reaches a length of 2-3 inches and has a deep red color when ripe. It is hard to find it fresh because it is usually dried and ground into powder or processed into flakes. So, I strongly recommend that you experiment with Middle Eastern spice blends and add Aleppo pepper into the blends. Ancho is an excellent substitute for this pepper.

Aji Amarillo. It is common in Peru in fresh and dried form. It has a medium pungency, a fruity aroma and a pretty complex bright taste. When fresh, it has a deep yellow-orange color and it becomes fiery orange when its dry. Peaked pods are quite narrow, 1^1/ inch in width and about 4-5 inches long. Dried pods are used for making sauces and fresh pods are used for making pastes and other dishes. It is hard to imagine Peruvian cuisine without this pepper and without ceviche as well, where Amarillo is an important ingredient.

Ancho. It is dried chili Poblano peppers. Their pod is large and broad, wrinkled, 3-4 3/4 inches long and 2 inches wide; their color varies from dark red to brownish black. Ancho has a sweet fruity aroma, resembling raisins, with a slight smoky flavor, barely perceptible sourness, barely perceptible bitterness, and mild pungency. It bears a tittle of one of the most popular dried chili peppers. Since Poblano is quite a fleshy pepper, it is required to wait till the pod reaches its full maturity and becomes of bright red colour in order to get a future Ancho. It is often added to sauces (salsa) for enchilada and mole. But it is far from the only use of this pepper: it is universal and is used in for cooking of many traditional dishes. If you are a true fan of Mexican cuisine, then you just have to get familiar with this amazing sort of chili. Ancho along with Mulato and Pasilla is called the "Mexican trinity" of dried chili for mole sauces. You can buy it in a form of dried pods, flakes and powder. In addition, Ancho can be found marinated in a special sauce called adobo.