On the Topic of: Seasoning Part 2

     Herbs and Spices have become such a major factor in my life that I can't help but come back for a second rant of their importance.  If you remember On the Topic of: Seasoning Part 1 you'll recall I left a few tips for you, and if you followed them your life has probably been a lot tastier lately. But to take it further you'll need to understand a little bit more about what you're actually working with, what magic it is that is contained in the mysterious powders you've been sprinkling over your food (Spices that is, if you are dosing your food with some other magic powders you're on your own with that, ya junkie.)
     First it's important to understand the differences between what determines if something is an Herb or a Spice .It all boils down to three things, location, location, location. The location specifically of the volatile oils that give Herbs and Spices their flavor packed punch. If you pull a Jed Clampett on the leaves it's an Herb, if you strike oil anywhere else on the plant it's a spice.
     Now that we know what Herbs and Spices are, let's discuss what makes the oils they contain 'volatile'. Are they poisonous or reactive with the skin, practically never, though a few examples like Mustard, Mace, and the Capsaicin located in Hot Peppers like Jalapenos can get a little rowdy when exposed to your more delicate tissues. So if that's not it, do they beat their spouses after a few too many Jager-Bombs? No, that's a stupid question and you should feel bad for thinking it. They are considered volatile oils because they evaporate so quickly, a pre-ground spice starts to rapidly lose flavor at about six months old (most of which may have already been spent in a warehouse, on a truck, or sitting on a shelf at the store before you ever get ahold of it. Whole Spices however, have a much longer shelf life, between one and four years if properly stored.
     "Whole spices, " you might ask in disbelief, "How am I supposed to use those?"
     There are two simple methods, the first has a very minor expense in the form of reusable cloth spice bags available at most spice retailers, such as North Market Spices. Just throw the spice in the bags and drop them into any liquid you happen to have on the boil. Of course, that doesn't help much with a fry, bake, broil, or sautee situation. The second method is a bit more costly but more useful in general terms. Buy something to grind spices with, from the old fashioned mortar and pestle to a cheap coffee grinder that will run even the toughest seeds and barks to powder in a few quick pulses.
     Remember what I said about using new spices carefully at first, the same can be said of using familiar spices when you first start grinding your own since their potency will be dramatically higher. Flavors you never knew existed might just come oozing out, having long since dissipated in the factory processed elderly saw dust they call Spices at the local mega mart.
     So, where do you get all these whole spices from, if not the grocery store? Well, Spices Ltd. at The North Market has a pretty tremendous selection at great prices, and their owner Ben is sort of a Spice Guru, so that is a definite option. But if you're a bit far from the market, feeling lazy, or just a shut in you can always buy from a reputable online spice vendor such as My Spice Sage who will deliver right to your mailbox, with no shipping charges if you are spending at least $20. They even have deals where they send you bonus spices with every order, even pricey stuff like Saffron or Madagascar Vanilla Beans.
     So, yeah, there is some stuff you may not have known about spices, and a few tips that might make things a little less bland in the mouthal regions of your life.
   

On the Topic of: A Pantry

     According to the first definition listed on Dictionary.com a Pantry is: a room or closet in which food, groceries, and other provisions, or silverware, dishes, etc., are kept. And while I wouldn't advocate giving up a whole room for groceries, I do strongly recommend building up a stock of them ahead of time. Cooking isn't something most people do everyday, some people not even every week some only cook once a year for a family reunion or holiday get together. So, why have a pantry? I'm assuming that since you're reading this article, well any article on my blog really, that you cook, or are learning to cook, but that doesn't mean that you have given a pantry much consideration, I know I didn't till I moved to Columbus.
     When I moved here I was out of work for a couple months, just living off of the little savings I had and selling what used to be a fairly impressive collection of extremely nerdy movies on DVD. I had been lead to believe that I was going to be stepping into a fairly solid job but the position was filled while I was loading up the U-Haul. Understandably my diet went to shit. I was feeding myself and my fiance on $20 a week, mostly spent at the Dollar General near my home. Even after I got a job hours were short for the new guy and we were still mostly living off the proceeds of box seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Gilmore Girls(don't judge me.)
     I was so trapped in the day to day struggle that I couldn't see a way out, until I started thinking about rice and noodles. Rice and noodles are your salvation when you're on the borderline of starvation, healthy, filling, and most importantly, cheap. But still expensive when you're buying them a pound at a time. So, on a rare week when our food budget jumped to a whopping $30 I went to Wal-Mart and bought it, the big bag of Great Value Rice. It was, I think, $8.00 for 20 pounds. We'd been buying about 2 pounds a week for $2.00. For those of you who don't want to do the math I just got 10 weeks worth of rice for $8 instead of $20. While it showed no immediate benefit, eating up most of my extra food money it did put me a little bit ahead.
     The following week I spent the $2.00 I didn't need to spend on rice along with the money I normally spent on peanut butter and a few extra and bought an 'Institutional size,' Peanut butter. If you've never seen the 'Institutional size' before, it is a 6 pound cylinder made for things like schools, day cares, and nursing homes who need to feed about a hundred people everyday. The next week I didn't have to buy Rice or Peanut Butter and I spent the money I normally spent on them on a 50 pound bag of flour and a 5 gallon bucket to put it in, the next week a 25 pound bag of sugar, etcetera, etcetera.
     This was pure Hell for the first few weeks, plain and simple. Mary thought I was crazy, we had more food in the house than ever before, but even less variety, basically all Rice and Peanut Butter Sandwhiches. It sucked, but as time wore on and we made additions to our 'Pantry' things became much easier. The addition of Flour added Pancakes and simple unleavened Breads to our diet, Sugar added Cakes and Cookies, and each addition loosened up a few extra dollars to broaden our shopping a little. Eventually we could have a week where all of our 'essentials' were taken care of and we could buy a bulk pack of meat to separate, then another, then another. And separate it we did, a five pound roll of Ground Beef became 20 quarter pound baggies to be added to rice or put over noodles. A five pound Beef Roast became a one pound Beef Roast, two half pound Steaks, and six half pound bags of cubes.
     And eventually work picked up, I caught on to corporate culture and started getting more than 15 hours a week and my grocery budget gradually rose with it. This is the point where it could have fallen apart. A clever shopper can EASILY feed two people on $30 a week if they have that every week, and believe me, you get to be an awfully damn clever shopper when you are barely managing to stay fed and sheltered on your budget. But if the 'Pantry System' helps you eat better and get ahead when you're dead broke, it changes your life when you have a little more cash to pump into it.
     A well stocked Pantry can allow you the freedom to branch out and buy things that you've never tried, buy things you love that are normally outside your logical budget, and sometimes allow you to skip the grocery store altogether. The only limit being your patience and persistance.
     But the Pantry has its limitations, fresh fruits and vegetables, Milk and Eggs, anything that rots, spoils, or reanimates as some sort of undead monstrosity after a week in the refridgerator is not a great candidate for storage unless you plan on cooking it off and freezing it, canning it, or dehydrating it. Getting a Farmers Market to give you a bulk discount on 25+ pounds of tomatoes is awesome... IF you plan on making bulk Marinara sauce for a family reunion, but in most cases it just means you are going to have a lot of ammunition for bad street theater in about a week and a half. So, exercise a little sense when shopping.
     The Pantries greatest weakness though, is disorganization and forgetfulness. Make sure to keep a list of what you run out of, because I promise there will be few times in your life where you feel stupider than when you believe you have 10 pounds of butter but in fact you have none because you haven't bought it for 4 months.

On the Topic of: Seasoning Part 1

     I know that mixing your own seasonings can be a little intimidating, they make those premixed packets for a reason right? Nobody wants to mess up dinner, friends and family looking down dejectedly, refusing to make eye contact with you, and deep down inside you know that they've lost all respect for you and you might as well just forget about going to your sisters school play or your Aunts Anniversary party. You've become a black sheep, a leper to your family, the one they keep locked in the cellar so the neighbors don't see you. But never fear, with a little practice and a little forethought you can step up in that crux moment when the fork is twixt plate and mouth and hold your head up high.
     The trick with seasonings, well, two tricks really, are:
1.      To know what the spices taste like individually. It's a wonderful thing to hear people talk about how fantastic Rosemary Chicken is, but it's entirely another thing to make a batch of it up and realize that Rosemary just happens to be one of those flavors that turns your stomach and you've ruined your dinner. With any new spice it's important to taste test it first, as much as sticks to the tip of your finger is usually enough to give you an idea. Keep in mind that what you're tasting will be diluted in the actual dish, spread throughout and mixed with the flavors of every other thing you add, so don't be disturbed if it seems a bit too strong. This is especially true in the case of certain herbs and spices that are especially powerful, Rosemary continuing to be a good example, and one that I will discuss more in the next section.
2a.      Remember that you're trying to eat delicious food, NOT spices with interesting textures. As I said above, the flavors will seem stronger when tried all alone, but until you have a little more experience with them go slow, add them a little time, taste test frequently. It's not unusual when I start trying a dish with a new spice for ten or twelve spoons to make their way into my sink before the meal is ever finished. And I learned this the hard way. The first time I tried cooking with Rosemary I added too much, I treated it like I would treat Garlic, an old familiar friend whose company I just couldn't get enough of, piled into a pot of Beef Stew like gold in a leprechaun's pot. The results were horrifying. Rosemary, when used properly adds a little Springtime freshness to any meal, when used improperly it is like a pine forest was violently ill in your mouth.
2b.      This isn't to disparage spicy food, a good bowl of Spicy Chili or a rich bowl of Curried... anything, is fantastic. Just make sure to keep it balanced so you're tasting food, not just spice. Tender tubers, mouthfuls of meats,  vivid vegetables, perfect pasta, they're all just as important as the seasonings you use, every flavor there to balance and sustain every other in harmony. Eventually it becomes second nature, keeping that balance in mind, remembering each flavor individually and as a community, but until it does, just take it slow and keep what I've said in mind, not because I'm some kind of Seasoning Guru, just because, for whatever crazy reason, I genuinely care how your dinner turns out.