Spice Road Spices - The Art of Spice Flavour.

Somehow it would seem we have lost touch with the old fashioned Mortar and Pestle. We are forever looking for the perfect flavour, especially with our midweek cooking and given time is usually short, we turn to a blender or processor for a favourite marinade or blend.

The point is nothing has changed when adding flavour to food. The ingredients are precious. They must always be fresh of course and the best quality available but even more, they must be well treated, especially when the ingredients need to be toasted and ground before adding to the recipe.

Think of Fennel or Cumin amonst many similer spice seeds that contribute wonderful flavour to a recipe. All need to be toasted, that is the spices gently heated in a pan to bring out the flavour oils before grinding.

There is little point in in buying ground spices that have been hanging in a packet way beyond their best flavour date

Which brings us back to a mortar and pestle. The spices, ginger, garlic or chilies from your recipe must be progessively and carefully ground rather than be subjected to an agressive blade that will reduce the available flavour.

We have found working with a mortar and pestle easy and rewarding - even fun when building your recipe. And the grinding can be done and stored in a sealed jar a few days before starting the recipe.

Having mastered all of the above there is one final reward for home chefs. Using a mortar and pestle you will eliminate costly wastage. That is, you only need to toast and grind the spices needed for the recipe.

Spices start to lose their flavour shortley after grinding and will soon be nothing more than wasted space in the pantry. A costly waste so grinding just what is needed is a good saving.

Important note: Should a mortar and Pestle not be available Spice Road Spices will toast and grind your spices prior to delivery, giving you several weeks of the very best flavour for the recipe.