Asian Spices & Plea for Recipies
Hello cavemen & cavewomen of O Land!
I’m a sophisticated caveman. Because of this I have a pantry full of spices and
herbs. Some of them I am not as experienced with. The Indian & Middle Eastern
herbs and spices I’m on okay terms with, the European stuff is practically
instinctual, but the Asian herbs and spices, like their women, still leave me
wondering (and salivating!).
I can handle the more common stuff like the cinnamon, ginger, common peppercorns
and such. I recently started using some star anise with other herbs and spices
to great effect and now I’m more excited about it. This time I made a collard
green & broccoli floret (top part only) fat-holding greens accompaniment for my
high-fat high-protein low-carb meals. I used white & black peppercorns freshly
ground in my trusty mortar & pestle (ho hum), szechuan peppercorns (zowee!),
fennel seeds, anise seeds, star anise– all of these crushed and ground in my
handy dandy mortar & pestle (”let thy food be thy medicine”). I also ground some
dry black mustard seeds. I get sweet, heat & pungency with these. Before the New
World (the “Americas” aka “Northern Hemisphere”) was “discovered” by the
murderous butchers & religion pusher-sinners of the European conquerors the East
had to use their peppercorns & mustards and a few other herbs to achieve the
effect of heat that the *real* peppers (jalapeno, habanero, etc.) provided,
hence the name “peppers” for them and the loser peppercorns that name came from.
History lesson over.
Well, anyway, I used non-acidic (vinegar) dry mustard, fennel, anise, szechuan &
white & black peppercorns, ginger, sea salt, star anise, ground coriander seed,
ground cardamom, ground clove, some ground cumin, shrimp sauce (more salinity)
and filled the dried out stir fry with organic palm oil. Oh yeah, I also cored &
removed the ribs from some fresh jalapeno, cayenne & hot banana peppers for the
full-range flavor of the New Word heat. Actually not too much heat because I
removed the seeds & styrofoamy core & “ribs”. It ended up tasting fantastic!
Makes it much easier to whip up a delightful, stimulating meat & fat meal.
I’ve got Madhur Jaffrey’s “Far Eastern Cookery” but it doesn’t cut it. Being a
blood-type dieter who is also a food-combiner means I’ve got to modify
practically every recipe out there, and most of them don’t show me that much
about using these more exotic Eastern herbs & spices. I’m sending out a plea for
people to share their own uses & techniques with these culinary ingredients.
Please help me/us!
P.S. Maddviking, great advice!
P.P.S. I don’t think us Os really demand grains, it’s more of an addiction
thing. Also, during detoxification I’m sure that the body can create gas from
detox alone, all sorts of weird stuff happens. In line with Dr. D’s advice about
going slow on entry into the BTD, along with the advice to slow the
detoxification process by intentional, controlled re-inclusion of avoids it is
possible to put a complete halt to some of the more distressing aspects of
detoxification. Roll that up and smoke it!