As our time in England is running out, I have been making a mental note of all the things about England that I am going to miss, and one of them is the access to the whole, fresh and fairly inexpensive spices!
Once you see the range of spices that you can get here, you will never go back to McCormicks!
Before I moved to Europe, my spices were really limited to salt and pepper for savory cooking with the occasional dash of oregano, thyme and dried parsley (cringe!) and of course cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice & ginger for various baking projects but generally I didn’t see spices as adding a whole heck of a lot to my meals because I just couldn’t taste their impact, and if I could – it was due to a small accident where a whole bunch landed in my sauce and completely overpowered and ruined the dish. So I have had a rather interesting relationship with spices in the past.
But once I got here, just a small dash of any spice made such an impact on my meals and brought out new levels of flavor that I had not been able to achieve before this time in my own kitchen.
The beauty of having access to such fresh spices is the ability to make your own spice blends which gives you the rather poetic license of putting more of a spice that you like more and trying new combinations for your favorite meals to make them truly your own creation.
Did you know that the ground spices you buy at a supermarket often sit on the shelf for over a year and before that, up to a year in a warehouse before they hit the shelves? Ground spices and dried herbs tend to loose their flavor and impact over just as little as six months! If you have these spices around, you will have to use quite a bit more to get the spice to come through in your food. But if you aren’t keen on tossing them out, soups are a great way to use up older spices!
You can significantly cut down the cost of the spices you buy in the supermarket (especially those that you use a lot of) in two different ways. First, you can grow your own then use them fresh as you are cooking. You can even dry these and crumble them yourself to put into glass jars. Second, you can purchase spices in bulk and store them in your own containers or purchase fresh herbs to dry and store. Both methods will keep a constant supply of fresh dried or fresh herbs and spices in your pantry at a much lower cost than buying those silly little plastic containers that you are paying someone to fill with otherwise rather inexpensive & dulled ingredients!
But where can you get fresh spices in bulk? Ethnic markets often have good quality, whole spices at affordable prices. Because their spices are used regularly, they are re-stocked more often than a grocery store’s supply. If you are unsure of their quality, ask a staff member or take a little bit home and try it out to see if they are any good. You can also find a spice merchant, they always guarantee quality and freshness and they can even introduce you to new spices or give you suggestions of how to use the spices you love! Lastly, you can order them online. There are so many companies out there selling various spices, this is often the best place to buy vanilla beans. The companies tend to offer a large discount for buying in bulk and it is something that stores easily at home for a fairly long time! You might even try looking in the back of your cookbook! These days, many cookbook authors (the reliable ones) will have a section in the rear of their books suggesting retailers by state and/or website to find the spices and ingredients that you need and want.
Here is a photo of the spice merchant that I go to and where all of the spices came from in today’s giveaway!
photo taken by Image Bank
The proprietor’s name is Gareth Butcher and he took over his herb and spice stall at the end of the 1970s. So as you can see, he has been at this a long, long time and has amounted a wealth of knowledge on each spice and little bits that he sells at his stand.
I absolutely love to visit and each time, I stock up on bits to send off to friends & family in the States and of course to fill my own pantry! I often find that I can get four to six times the amount of each herb or spice here at Gareth’s stand than I can in any supermarket, no matter what sales they are having! That’s pretty darn good!
Because I have been so fortunate to expand my repertoire of spices and herbs and also to be able to have access to such a diverse array of them, I decided that I would purchase some of my favorites and arrange a giveaway!
For isntance, during my time cooking with my online cooking group, French Fridays with Dorie, I have found that I have used an alarming amount of cardamom, star anise and saffron – spices that are harder to come across in the States and certainly ones that I really had no idea what to use them in but I now use them all the time in all sorts of dishes and love them! Sea salt is something I’m still learning quite a bit about, but I have definitely gravitated towards using it more and more in all of my cooking and baking as each different type gives a different depth to the things that I cook.
There are so many delightful ways to use each of these and your imagination is your only limitation! I have chosen spices and items that I have really come to rely on and also some that will cause you to look for recipes to use them in so that you may discover something new to incorporate into your pantry, while others are just plain hard-to-find and too expensive to purchase. So without further ado, here are the items in my Spices to Inspire Giveaway!
- one box of Maldon Sea Salt
- one box of Saffron threads
- one tin of Ras-el-Hanout spice blend
- one jar of Marmite
- one bag of Quinoa (red & white quinoa mix with bulgar wheat)
- two vanilla beans
- one nutmeg
- Lemon Verbena leaves
- green cardamom pods
- yellow mustard seeds
- star anise
- Kaffir Lime Leaves
- French Lentils de Puy
- one Tweet Tweet Birdie Storage Tin
Ras-el-Hanout, Quinoa, Maldon Sea Salt & Marmite
Lemon Verbena leaves, Saffron, Nutmeg, Green Cardamom Pods
French Lentils de Puy, Vanilla Beans, Star Anise, Kaffir Lime leaves
Tweet Tweet Birdie Tin, Lemon Verbena leaves, Green Cardamom pods & Yellow Mustard Seeds
To Enter the Giveaway:
Simply answer this Question: What is your go-to spice?
Bonus Entries:
1. Follow A Mama, Baby & Shar-Pei in the Kitchen on Facebook and leave a comment saying you did so.
2. Subscribe to A Mama, Baby & Shar-Pei in the Kitchen’s email updates by clicking on the email subscription button located on the sidebar and leave a comment saying you did so.
3. Follow any or all of my Pinterest boards and leave a comment saying you did so.
4. Pin this giveaway on Pinterest and leave a comment saying you did so.
5. Leave a link to this post on your own Facebook page or your blog’s Facebook page and leave a comment with a link to the post.
6. Leave a comment on my Facebook page! It can be anything you like! A quick hello, the title of your favorite magazine, your favorite joke of the week, … literally anything! Just be sure to leave me a comment saying you did so here!
7. You can get another bonus entry by posting a link to this blog on your twitter page, and letting me know with a comment on this post.
Thats EIGHT chances to win a copy of this fabulous cookbook! Good luck to you all!
PLEASE REMEMBER: Leave a separate comment for EACH of your entries AND bonus entries, or only one entry will be counted.
**If you already follow A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen on Facebook and/or already subscribe to my blog leave a comment for each since these count as additional entries.**
The giveaway starts on 12/5/2012 and will run until 12/14/2012 at 11:59 pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Official Rules: Giveaway is open to U.S., UK & Germany as well as any APO/FPO addresses. To enter leave a comment. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org. I will email the winner and they will have up to 3 days to claim their prize or another winner will be selected. One winner will be selected at random to receive all the items listed above. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.