Cinnamon, Cloves and Turmeric

There are two ways how to jazz up an ordinary meal. You can travel a huge distance to a fancy shop and blow your budget by buying that very special, hard to get and recklessly expensive ingredient OR you can just play around with herbs and spices. I like both ways, but I have to admit that the second one is far more budget friendly. My collection of spices is still in the developing stage at the moment, but I'm working on it. It's winter here, so warm and sweet spices are on the top of my list.

Cinnamon is the dried bark of a tree Cinnamomum zeylancium that is sold powdered or as bark sticks. I like to keep both in my pantry, but if you choose just one, take the powder, it is more versatile. Sticks can be used more than once if you wash them un cold water and dry in a warm place after use. Cinnamon is often associated only with sweet dishes, but in the Middle East and Indian cuisine it is used foe savory dishes as well.

Cloves are the flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum- a tree native to Indonesia. However today most of the clove crops is grown in Madagascar. Cloves have a specific sweet'n'sour scent, but taste is rather hot. They are often used in pickling. An orange with cloves poked in it does not rot or go mouldy but dries out, has a nice smell and makes a good Christmas decoration. Normally cloves are safe to use, but pregnant women should avoid consuming large amounts.

Turmeric is dried, powdered root of Curcuma longa, a plant that is related to ginger. The powder has a rich yellow color and is sometimes called Japanese saffron because it is used as a substitute of the extremely expensive saffron. It is called a natural food colouring or E100 when used industrially, but it's taste is bitter and peppery and scent earthy. It is an important part of South Asian cuisine and many Indian dishes.

X-mas Flavoured Pumpkin Soup

My mum particulary loves this variation around the pumpkin soup theme.

Ingredients:
*aprroximately 1kg pumpkin (seeded, peeled and cut in chunks)
*2 medium onions
*3 cloves garlic
*one or two carrots
*root of parsley
*allspice corns
*black pepper corns
*cloves
*little piece of cinnamon bark
*bay leaves
*oil
*salt

Method:
Chop onion, garlic, carrot and root of parsley finely. Pour some oil in the pot you are going to use for making soup and cook the chopped vegetables until they are browned slightly. Take a piece of cotton cloth, wrap allspice, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves and secure with cotton thread, so spices can't escape. Put pumpkin and the cloth in the pot where the vegetables are. Cover with boiling water and simmer until pumpkin is soft. Remove the cloth, blend the soup untit it is smooth, add salt and bring it to boil again. Serve with crusty bread.

Tofu Curry

This is deffinately not an authentic Indian curry, but it is rich, spicy and aromatic, and this combination makes me happy. I created this curry by improvising and do not remember the exact proportions of ingredients, so use the common sense and your taste buds!

*tofu (I used the ''Blue Dragon'' tofu simply because that's the only one I can find in ordinary supermarkets)
*red capsicum
*garlic
*plain yoghurt
*lemon juice
*ground coriander
*ground chilli
*sweet paprica powder
*ground cinnamon
*turmeric
*tomato puree
*oil
*salt

Method:
Cut tofu in cubes. Mix yoghurt with spices and lemon juice and pour over tofu. Let tofu marinate in the yoghurt for a while. Chop garlic finely and cut capsicum in chunks. Cook garlic in some oil, add capsicum and tomato puree, bring to boil and simmer for approximately 10 minutes. Add tofu and youghurt and simmer for 20 more minutes. Serve with rice.

Traditionally Indian curries are served with raita and naan on the side. I will try to make them at home and publish my results as soon as possible.

Spicy Rolled Oat Cookies (makes 25-30)

They are wery simple and versatile cookies. The basic recipe stays the same, but instead of spice mix you can add dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, citrus zest and other tasty things.

Ingedients:
*100g butter
*1/2 or 1 full cup brown sugar (depends how sweet you want the cookies, coarse demerara sugar makes them nice and crunchy)
*2 eggs
*1 cup flour
*1 teaspoon baking powder
*2 cups rolled oats
*vanilla esence or vanilla flavoured sugar
*cinnamon
*turmeric
*ground cloves (cloves are usually sold whole, to get ground cloves I use ancient electric blade coffee grinder)

Method:
Soften the butter,use fork to mix it with sugar. Add the eggs and spices and mix until smooth. Sift flour together with baking powder, add flour and rolled oats, mix well. Drop teaspoons of mixture on a greased or baking paper covered trau, bake in 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 30 minutes or until hard.