Spice up your world

I have The Spice Kitchen by Sara Engram and Katie Luber (Andrews McMeel Publishing) to thank for a fascinating background on the spice trade. The desire of the West to flavor their otherwise bland food with exotic spices from the Far East led to exploration, conquests, battles, and colonization. All these forever altered the cultures of spice-rich lands. It even crossed my mind that when Frank Herbert wrote Dune, a story of the coveted spice on Arakis that the ruling families of the planets were fighting over, he had in mind the real spice “wars” between the Portuguese and the Spanish, the Dutch and the British!

Spices can be defined as the dried, aromatic flavoring that comes from plants. For example, you have the bark of the cinnamon tree, chili powders from a range of peppers, allspice from berries, anise from seeds and the like. I don’t have the space to list all my favorites here—nutmeg, cardamom, turmeric, peppercorns, cloves, coriander, cumin, the list goes on and on.

Then there are the herbs and other aromatics, which are flavorings also from plants, and which can be used fresh or dried. Basil, lemongrass, oregano, pandan, parsley, and ginger top my list.

Here are some of my favorite, but not typical, recipes making use of these wonderful ingredients, both familiar and exotic. One will take you on a culinary voyage to Myanmar and the other is a nice addition to your holiday table. I hope they help you spice up your world!

California Style Fruitcake Bars

My husband and I adore fruitcake. For those who are not big fans of candied fruit, here’s a California style fruit cake using dried fruit and nuts. If you want a Filipino-style fruitcake with locally sourced ingredients you can use dried mangoes, dried pineapple and dried coconut (not desiccated) for this, and cashew nuts.

• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice
• 2 cups assorted dried fruit like raisins, apricots and dates or dried local fruit like mangoes, pineapple, and coconut)
• ½ cup walnuts or cashews
• ½ cup jam or jelly (coffee will also do)

Grease and line a 15” jelly roll pan (the baking pan with a rim) with parchment or baking paper. Heat the oven to 350F or 180C. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This is easier with a mixer, but can also be done by hand. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices even right there in the measuring cup. Add about ½ cup of the dry ingredients to the dried fruit and nuts in a bowl and coat well. The reason you do this is so the heavy fruits don’t sink to the bottom. Add the remaining dry ingredients to the batter alternately with the jam, jelly or coffee. Lastly, blend in the dried fruit and nuts well. Spread evenly in the prepared baking pan.

Bake, about 30-40 minutes, until the top is set and lightly golden brown. Cool completely, then cut into small squares or rectangles to serve.

Mohinga

Mohinga would be to the Burmese what adobo is to us Filipinos, a staple and everyday food. I tried mohinga for the first time in San Francisco, at a Burmese restaurant on Clement Street. When I expressed my delight to the Burmese friend who took me there, she arranged for a group of senior Burmese women to give me a mohinga cooking class in Fremont.

These ladies fried catfish and flaked it, but the Burmese use different fish depending on what part of the country they live in. Here, I use sole or dapa fillet but even cream dory is okay—the sometimes muddy taste will be camouflaged by the spices.

Mohinga is basically a thin fish stew that you ladle over rice noodles, then top with a variety of garnishes to your taste. It is light, healthy and addictive. We keep stock of mohinga in the freezer to make a tasty, last minute meal.

For the mohinga:

• 2 Tbsps. vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• ½-inch piece ginger, sliced
• 3 pieces dapa (sole) fillet
• 2 stems lemon grass, roots only, pounded with a pestle to release the flavor
• 4 Tbsps. chickpea flour (besan), roasted by cooking in a dry frying pan over medium heat till it changes color
• ½ tsp. turmeric
• ½ - 1 tsp. chili powder, depending on how hot you’d like it to be
• 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
• salt and pepper

For serving:

• Thai or Vietnamese flat rice noodles, boiled till tender
• Coriander (cilantro or wansuy) or sliced leeks
• Crispy fried chopped garlic
• Fish sauce
• Calamansi juice
• Chili flakes
• Chopped hard boiled eggs

Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook a few minutes, then add the fish and lemon grass plus about eight cups water. Blend a little water into the roasted flour to make a loose paste and blend this in. Add the turmeric, chili powder and fish sauce. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer at least an hour and even longer to develop the flavor and reduce the liquid a bit. This stew is supposed to be a bit liquid-y. Then remove the lemongrass and use a hand blender (or a regular blender, working in batches) to make it smooth. You may return the lemongrass.

To serve, place the mohinga in a serving dish. Set around it the cooked noodles and the condiments. Let everyone put some noodles in their bowls and ladle some of the mohinga over. Try different combinations of the condiments to suit your taste.