A Word About Ingredients

For those of you who frequent this blog, you may notice we have made some updates to the "essentials" sidebar. On our journey through the sometimes tundra, sometimes tropic landscape of "immune-system sensitive" cooking, we've come across many off-the-beaten-path and otherwise handy techniques and ingredients that have become vital to our sanity. To incorporate some of the newer finds, and to consolidate some of the elements we're not using as much as perhaps we thought, an improved "essentials" list emerges. I (Austin) determined though, some explanations were in order.

First, there are many ingredients we have included (especially in the mouth-watering Nonessential/Regional section) that will likely be unfamiliar, as they were to us. I would hate to be the guy that tells you how fantastic something is and then tells you you'll probably never find it. So, let me plug one of my favorite resources: worldspice.com. Almost every spice we buy comes through the mail from these guys (quick!). Many of the nonessentials we recommend are flavor components from particular cultures who's foods we have found to be immensely flavorful and complex due in part to their wide variety of flavors. It has helped us somewhat to find dishes and cuisines that rely heavily on flavors that are outside our Western tradition, to help us find other flavor focal points for dishes- outside the typical "start with sweating onions with butter in a pan...". Most of these traditions do incorporate onions and garlic but seemingly suffer less in their unique characteristics when said alliums are omitted. If you are interested in exploring and experimenting with some new tastes, we recommend these as a starting point.

As for the "essential" spices, if you are cooking without onions and garlic at your disposal, and if you are not using the spices on this list, consider this post a twist of the arm and a kick in the pants- these ingredients will make your life easier and tastier! If you look into your kitchen cabinet and see a spice rack of indeterminable age filled with powdery specimens, kindly escort it to your neighborhood dumpster. Buying whole spices and grinding them yourself (sounds scary? go out and buy yourself a cheap blade coffee grinder, put the spices in, grind, smile) will perk up your food like you wouldn't believe. If the entire list is a little too daunting or perhaps rough on your change purse, start at the top of the list and work your way down.

Here's an extremely speedy rundown of initial uses for the uninitialized:

• Use cumin for Mexican, Indian, Moroccan, grilled meats, burgers, tacos, guacamole (BTW best guac recipe ever -humbly- mash some avocados with lime juice, salt and a pinch or two of ground cumin. Mwwaaaaa!), chili, use it to counteract a dish with too much sharpness or acidity, or whenever you want a bit of a savory earthiness.
• Use turmeric when you want to add color (yellow) and complexity to a sauce, when you want a hit of sweet musk, in anything Indian or Moroccan, or to add color to the top of a dip or hummus.
• Use paprika in everything, it adds complexity without hot chile spiciness, it also completes the trio of essential Moroccan spices(cumin, tumeric, paprika).
• Use cayenne (gradually!) when you want a little heat, it's used almost everywhere- Africa, China, India, South America, our kitchen- everywhere important...
• Use whole red chili peppers fried in oil to give a stir-fry some heat, or grind them and add to sauces or meat dishes, you won't make a great bowl of chili without them, we try to have a few different kinds of varying heat and geographic origin but take it at your own speed.
• Use coriander almost anywhere you would cumin, when you are looking for some citrusy notes.
• Use bay leaves and dried mushrooms in any long cooking liquid - stock (see recipe in our blog), soups, sauces, roasts, braises, etc.
• Dried oregano is the only herb I recommend buying ahead of time, it can be used for Mexican vegetables and for tomato sauce in a pinch- other dried herbs are not worth buying in our opinion, we just don't use them if we can't find them fresh.
• Arrowroot is great for finishing sauces, it creates a nice buttery sheen as it thickens (use in place of flour or corn starch for thickening).
• Sea salt is useful for finishing dishes, don't use it in liquids or in something still cooking, it is worth seeing and distinctly tasting on the dish.
• Fennel seed has a nice nutty anise flavor that goes well with meat dishes (homemade sausage!- ground pork, fennel seed, ground chile, truffle oil...), roasts, Indian dishes, etc.
• Mustard seed is useful in Indian cuisine and homemade mustard (recipe below).
• Finally use Asaoetida. This has become a favorite- it's an Indian spice, not relatively well-known or -used, but it is invaluable when you come to the point of needing to substitute for onion or garlic flavor (garlic has been a little easier to approximate- truffle oil as well as dried -or fresh really- shitake mushrooms impart a similar and desirable effect). Asaoetida is a powder that smells horribly rancid and quite overpowering but heating small amounts gently in oil brings out a wonderful aroma and just a little bit can add just the necessary edge for that brother-in-law who's coming over who doesn't believe a dish without onions deserves to have breath. If you're afraid you will hate it because, well, you hate the taste of onions, take solace in the fact that our very own Ali is the same way, yet enjoys a little of this gem once in a while.

Another quick note on ordinary fridge staples. We have some great grocers in our area and are able to track down things like GF/onionless mustard and mayo. If you are not so lucky as us, they are not so hard as you might think to make yourself.

Quick Mustard

Mustard is prepared by grinding mustard seeds (or buying ground) and mixing with vinegar or water until the desired texture is reached (my favorite is half sherry vinegar, half white wine vinegar and half yellow, half brown mustard seeds). Be mindful, this method produces mustard with a kick.

There are plenty of recipes out there for making mayonnaise (I won't take the time here but any Joy of Cooking should have it).

Quick Pickles

Also, if you miss things like pickles, buy some small salad cucumbers (or if you want to bond even closer with your food, get some seeds and a pot of soil) and can them in distilled or unseasoned rice vinegar (you can follow the same steps as we laid out for sanitizing jars for jams).

As a general comment, don't fret if there's something you love that you can't eat anymore. Chances are, somebody was making it at home before the big warehouse that trucks it to your grocery store. Plus, we're always here and ready for a challenge - so please keep the comments and emails coming!