Season of Spices

During the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, we joined friends for lunch in Menlo Park, and afterward, because we all had the time, they suggested visiting Penzeys to check out their larder.

Penzeys, a longtime mail-order spice purveyor, opened the shop on Santa Cruz Avenue two years ago, and I’ve been meaning to visit all this time. Had I made the trip sooner, I would have known years ago about black cardamom, no relation to real cardamom, which adds a smoky element to slow-cooked meats and curries across Asia.

I also would have known about ajwain or ajowan, a seed with a scent reminiscent of celery that’s used on Afghan bread. And I would have realized that bratwurst’s distinctive flavor comes from a mixture of nutmeg and mustard.

I learned these things because at the shop, unlike with the catalog, everything Penzeys sells is available for smelling. It was thus that I chose my favorite black peppercorns — Tellicherry — which have covered nearly everything on my plate since our visit.

Photo: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Fun Food Finds

I first met Castelvetrano olives at a dinner party in Bernal Heights, and immediately fell in love. Grown in Sicily, where they are harvested young and cured in a light brine, they sport a beautiful, vivid green hue. But their greatest attribute is their complete lack of bitterness. Buttery, relatively salt free and bursting with oil, they’re the milk chocolate truffle of the olive tray.

Without the edge that other cured olives give to a sauce or stew, they’re best eaten plain, as part of an appetizer tray. They’ll appeal to people who don’t normally warm to olives.

In September, faced with a box of Bartlett pears that were fast turning into mush, I searched for a recipe that would use up a bunch of them. I found one by Maida Heatter: a pear crisp that called for candied ginger. I’d never used candied ginger before and wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I found it easily in the baking section—a tin of chopped young ginger preserved in sugar.

 

The ginger gave the pears (whose quiet personality all but disappears when cooked) a pleasantly spicy kick. And the little bits made a great snack: because they’re so potent, just one or two wake up the tastebuds. I’ve added them to ginger snaps for extra heat, and I’ve stewed them in milk for a soothing, sweet ginger chai.

I spent a cold Saturday morning in Berkeley sealing bag after bag of za’atar mix for the International Solidarity Movement. I messed up the first bag, so I had to buy it; because it was in my kitchen, I had to use it.

The complex, slightly bitter mixture of wild thyme, sumac and sesame seeds is used in the Middle East as a topping for labneh, or yogurt cheese; it’s also mixed with olive oil and spread on flatbread. I used it to coat squares of feta cheese and found it brought the mild cheese to life. I plan to use it as a dry rub for chicken breasts.