 5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe. The five o'clock time slot is about to get a heck of a lot spicier. Susan Feniger is the chef, cookbook author and 30-year restaurant industry veteran behind the Border Grill family of restaurants and more recently, her dearly successful street food venture appropriately named STREET in Los Angeles, California. You may also recognize her from Season 2 of Bravo's "Top Chef Masters," where she competed alongside the likes of Eatocracy mainstays Rick Moonen, Graham Elliot and Marcus Samuelsson. Much of the positive buzz surrounding Chef Feniger's cuisine applauds her use of the unorthodox ingredients and exotic flavors of world street food. Let's just say her seasoning isn't your mama's average salt and pepper - and she's here to shake things up. Five Favorite Spices: Susan Feniger Anyways, he brought me a cutting from his mom’s plant, I planted it and for a couple of years it was sort of wimpy - then, it took off. It’s been five years in our backyard and it’s growing wild. It has these huge leaves, with these shoots that just float in the air that form another leaf and another - it’s fantastic looking. I use it in salsas, to wrap fish and grill, to wrap vegetables and steam in beans. It’s got the most fragrant beautiful flavor that is sweet and flowery." 2. Epazote 3. Curry leaves or sweet neem leaves 4. Kafir lime leaf 5. Pandan leaf Is there an unlikely seasoning in your regular rotation? Spice things up in the comments below. Is there someone you'd like to see in the hot seat? Let us know in the comments below and if we agree, we'll do our best to chase 'em down. |
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hiho! this web-blog is absolutely good.. I am sure that I`m coming back to see more articles!?
Good night, this internetsite is really funny. I am sure that Im coming back to read new blogposts!?
Susan (or anyone else)..... I am searching for some fresh"Hoja Santa" (or Acuyo) for my Xmas Tamales Rancheros Veracruzanos but can't locate any here in Las Vegas... HELP!!!! Anyone know where I can find some? Let me know!
Piment d'Espelette – is one of my favoites. I found out about it in a cooking class, it is the main spice in bouillabaisse. I use it in everything from tomato sauce for pasta to scrambled eggs. It is awesome. Unfortunately, you can only get it online here in the US and it can be hard to find. Sometimes they have it on Amazon, but it can be hit or miss. Like any chili pepper or paprika, it should be kept in the fridge.
You don't eat pandan leaves – you use them to wrap Thai food in...
I just looked up Hoja Santa and found the following;
The essential oils in the leaf are rich in safrole, a substance also found in sassafras, which has been shown to be carcinogenic in animals. In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned sassafras bark along with sassafras oil and safrole as flavoring agents because of their carcinogenic properties and the Council of Europe imposed the same ban in 1974, so the safety of flavoring food with hoja santa remains questionable.
MMmmm. I love me some carcinogens. Especially with Frank's Hotsauce.
One note Re. the Curry leaves. There are for added purely to impart flavor like bay leaves. Do not eat them.
Man who take laxative while on internet will download quickly.
I love Kaffir lime leaves, but there is a shortage (ban) from some citrus disease. I am having trouble getting them. Thai food is not the same with lime zest and lime juice.
Confucius Say-Man who Fart in Church,Must sit in own Pew!
Also: "He who fishes in another man's well is destined to catch crabs."
also: "man who dreams of eating giant marshmellow wake up with soggy pillow"
Also: "Man who take sleeping pill and laxative on the same night will wake up in deep sh*t".
Also: "Man who go to bed with hard problem, wake up with solution in hand. "
And here I've thought for over 60 years that, when the essential oils are expressed in the leaves of a plant that we refered to them as herbs, not spices.
Can you even find any of this stuff at the local grocery store? I doubt it.
This is great if you can afford all that foo-foo crap.some of us just make enough to eat and live.
Better to eat local anyways
I will definitely try a couple of these. I am moving more and more toward vegetarianism (except for seafood) and like playing with herbs for unique flavors added to old favorites. I often use bay leaf in bean and chicken dishes...just sautee it for a few minutes in the hot oil with garlic and onion and some 'heat' and the dish is extra special.
Sweet Neem Leaves..yummy!
It sounds like all of these herbs need to be used fresh. So their usefulness here in the mid-Midwest is pretty much zero.
I'm all for appreciating local cuisine, but I'm not in a position to travel thousands of miles to taste it.
Also, fry either Italian basil or Thai basil leaves briefly in hot oil. Serve with diced heirloom tomatoes and oysters on the half-shell with a champagne mignonette sauce. The basil takes on a slightly nutty taste with the typical herbal notes. You really need to grow your own epazote; the dried stuff is just flavored dust by comparison – but it is not a decorative plant. Most would mistake it for an ugly weed.
Cleopatra is said to have sprinkled her boudoir with cardamon to tempt Marc Antony – not that he necessarily needed the aromatherapy!
A weed is just a flower that nobody loves.
But I know a bunch of people who love "weed"....
Freshly ground cardamon – I use i with rice, in curries, on bread, and in my coffee. It's amazing! It has a wonderful sweet spicy note similar to cinnamon and nutmeg, but it is full enough to handle savory dishes like a curry. My Swedish family uses it quite often and I was raised on it, I put it in everything I can :) Try a pinch in your coffee grinder, it is divine!
I love kaffir lime leaves and pandanus leaves. I also love lemon myrtle from Australia. Like lemongrass it adds a unique taste without the lemon "Pledge" taste of lemon balm. Freshly ground nutmeg is wonderful, and I only use Tellicherry peppers.
Hoja Santa is new to me. I'll have to try that one. I'm particularly fond of kaffir lime leaves.
My favorite spice is probably freshly grated nutmeg. Ther's something immeasurably beautiful about the aroma, and the taste - when the spice is used correctly - is distinctive yet enhancing to other flavors. I don't use it just for baking, but for savory dishes as well. It's not an unusual spice, but some centuries ago it was extremely exotic.
Kaffir lime leaves are the soul of Thai cooking. They add such a perfume to the dishes and there is NO replacing them – lime zest or juice doesn't come close. But they are not meant to be eaten – if you chomp on one of them it can be quite bitter. Instead, simmer them in coconut milk for curries, or in a mix of fish sauce, palm sugar, peanuts and/or dried shrimp and lime juice for a killer warm dressing for salads or noodles.
Neem leaves have a somewhat similar place in Indian cooking. They are nicknamed curry leave because they do have a flavor roughly similar to what in the west is called "curry powder". Our western curry powder is NOTHING like the masalas (spice mixtures) that are the foundation of this remarkable cuisine. Stir fry neem leaves along with kalonji (nigella) seeds and/or mustard seeds in some ghee (clarified butter) and then stir in basmati rice that has been washed, soaked and thoroughly drained. Toss the rice with the butter and spices and then add the needed amount of water and cover tightly and steam until done. The flavor of the rice seasoned like this is a revalation. Neem leaves are also commonly used in various different dishes and in tarkas for dals – spices fried in ghee that is then poured over cooked dals(beans) to 'finish' the flavor.
Pandan leaves are widely used in India also. Essence of pandan is commonly used to flavor sweets like the milk based sweets so common there. I've used the essence to flavor fruit salads, french toast, smoothies and even ice cream. It has an almost vanilla like scent and taste, but weirdly it can add add an elusive but perfect finishing note to savory foods steamed in the leaves. I prefer to use it mostly in sweet dishes. It blends really well with cardamom.
I'm not at all familiar with Hoja Santa. I'll have to hunt it down and try it. I love learning about new herbs and spices and trying them out. And I used to really love the show that Mary Sue Milliken and Sue Feniger had – it was one of the early shows on the food network and I really enjoyed it.
I've tried epazote but really didn't care for it's somewhat earthy. almost musty flavor. But I'm not all that familiar with central american cuisines or how/where to use this herb. I've known other cooks who love it.
"but let me tell you, it’s very, very unique." Unique means one of a kind, words like very and somewhat can not be applied without the word becoming meaningless. She either meant to say that it was very, very rare or that it was unique. I don't know how something that basic could get through the editing process.
Uh – they're quotes. Editing them, even in the interest of grammatical or definitional purity, would be by far the greater journalistic sin here. An interviewer is expected to accurately report what their subject said, and any editor found altering quotes would find their job in jeopardy.
That's what "sic" is for.
I had to look that up a few weeks ago ([sic]). Kept seeing it in news articles. Now I am all learned.
Get a life! Who cares if a chef's grammar is not up to your standards! If you want to proofread articles, keep your comments to yourself.
Leaves are not spices. Still, these are interesting–I've tried a few. Too bad they don't grow in the midwest.
I adore her this woman.
I like galanga root in soups.
Salt.
Ahhh. . . Once again white man "discovers" the treasures of Native America and the Far East . . .
I love fennel seed. It gives a delicious sausage flavor to pizza, tomato sauces, and works excellent in stuffed mushrooms.
I added chevril to my salads this week, and found it to be similar to parsley.
Fennel doesnt taste like sausage, it is 'Italian' sausage that uses fennel etc as a fla
voring
Grains of Paradise are awesome, way better than standard black peppercorns..
I don't cook with Epazote–but I've been growing it for years, it's a pretty plant, guess if it is not too stinky I could try it in a crock pot of beans. Got the plant from the Seeds of Change web site http://www.seedsofchange.com/, it's not invasive.
Ryan – Question for you, does this idiot get paid to read the article and then have time to even leave the comment? Hu.. not sure.
It's rather disturbing all the talk of bringing these leaves in and propagating them. Curry leaves are a a vector for the HLB virus that has the possibility of wiping out California's citrus industry. Growing your own is great, just not at the cost of people's livelihoods.
I agree. If you want to grow exotic plants, go ahead, but put them in pots not in the ground and be wary of where their seeds and sprouts end up. That's how we get massive invasive species that choke out native plants. Pots come in all shapes and sizes so there has got to be one out there that would suit your plant, even if it's a tree.
This article looks like it was written at an elementary grade level. Do people actually get paid to write this garbage?
It's a blog. Not an academic journal.
I concur with Fiona.
So, luckily then you can read the article since it's at the grade school level. Sounds like your idea of gourmet is Ketsup!
I'm with you. Anyone who intends to write in the public sphere needs to know the difference between it's and its. And Fiona, just because it's not an academic journal doesn't mean it's exempt from good grammar. Students learn the difference between those two words in fourth grade. Is that too academic for you?
All these leaves, I don't know if this is about cooking or smoking...:)
I need some ZigZags-Pronto!
I'll bring the Doritos.
Don't bogart the Pandan Leaf
haha!
I will pass thanks...
*Snork*
I'd hit it.