My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices.
Country town to the city heart, in every corner of the globe you’ll find a Chinatown, a Chinese restaurant or an Asian grocer. From this vast and ancient culture, we credit noodles, dumplings, rice, countless spices and cooking techniques to have enriched every culture that they’ve landed in.
Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices. The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I’m taking with me when I go.
I think you have to be careful with spices. Kids’ palates can be very delicate, and they might not like things overspiced. In my cookbooks for kids, I do a milder version of my signature spice blend, Emeril’s Essence, called Baby Bam, which has no cayenne pepper.
Spices, of course, are essential.
A nutritionist has told me to have very little butter and very little spices, but I can’t live like that.
In my travels, I also noticed that kids in Thailand like spicy food, and kids in India love curry. I’m hoping to introduce my son, Hudson, to lots of veggies and spices when he’s young. I say that before he’s started on solid foods, so it could be easier in theory than practice!
The range of ingredients available to home cooks has expanded dramatically. People are incorporating herbs and spices like lemongrass, smoked Mexican chile, sumac, and za’atar mix.
I love to use a lot of spices when I cook, so we actually cast a real peppercorn in gold and then just made a bead out of it for necklaces and earrings.
When I stopped eating meat, I fell in love with East Indian food – there’s so much selection, and they use the most beautiful spices.
Black pepper is necessary to absorb the key antioxidants in most spices and foods, including turmeric, so get a pepper grinder and fill it with Tellicherry peppercorns.
Even just a few spices or ethnic condiments that you can keep in your pantry can turn your mundane dishes into a culinary masterpiece.
I use a lot of spices, fresh veggies and fruit, extra virgin olive oil, nuts, avocado, soybeans and organic ingredients as often as possible. We need fat in our diets and using the healthier fats is key.
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