Gourmet. Central Asian spices
Bay leaf
Distribution: Its fatherland is Eastern Mediterranean. It grows on the coast of the Black and Mediterranean seas.
Use: It refines and aromatizes mainly sour dishes. It is added to first courses - soups, cabbage soups, red-beet soups. Bay leaf adds spice to second courses made from lamb, beef, pork; goes well with boiled and stewed fish, vegetables. It is added to sauces. In marinating it is added to mushrooms, cucumbers, French beans, cabbage, canned meat and fish. It aromatizes vinegar.
Red pepper
Distribution: Central America is considered to be its fatherland; it is grown in countries with hot climate - in India, Eastern Asia, as well as in Ukraine, Moldavia and Central Asian countries. Ground red pepper is produced for export in India, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Chili. It comes to Russia from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan.
Use: It is one of the spices traditionally used in sausage production, also used when cooking galantines and cutlets. It goes well with meat, vegetable, legume and rice dishes. Chicken, pork, fish and seafood are spiced with it to add piquancy. It is added to cheese, curd produce, salads. For example, Korean salads cannot do without ground or crushed red pepper. The rate of laying pepper depends on the level of causticity of one or other kind, sort. In sauce production ground and crushed pepper goes for making chili ketchups, sauces and lechos.
Cloves
Distribution: The fatherland of clove-tree is Indonesia (Moluccas); it was known in China and India already in B.C. Gradually cloves were spread to other countries of the Asian Torrid Zone and then reached the East-African islands. Cloves reached Europe through Ceylon, from where ships took them to the ports of the Red Sea and then carried in convoys to Alexandria and Tsargrad.
Use: Cloves possess a strong, peculiar aroma and a spicy taste. They are used for cooking bitter stomachic liquors, hot drinks with wine, punches, fruit juices and stewed fruits. They are added to dishes with red cabbage, pork, lamb, to dark meat gravies, to headcheese and pate from poultry, to mushrooms and jellied meat, when marinating herrings. In combination with kohlrabi leaves and onions it ameliorates the taste of sauerkraut. It is used very economically, in the form of powder, for cooking fish, spaghetti and sauces to it, as well as pizza.
Barberry
Distribution: Its fatherland is South and Central Europe, Central Asia. It grows in Caucasus, South Europe, Asia.
Use: Plov, meat dishes, sauces, seasonings. Barberry may be used for ameliorating the taste of stewed fruits and fruit sweets, making various sauces to game and fried beef. Fish dishes. In marinating: jams, jellies, juices, marmalades, stewed fruits.
Black pepper
Distribution: The fatherland of black pepper is India, its description can be found in Sanskrit language. From India pepper got spread to Indonesia and other countries of South-East Asia and was brought to Africa and America later.
Use: It is used for making soups, dressings, goulash, sauces, added to all kinds of meat and meat produce, to Savoy cabbage and sauerkraut, to dishes made from legumes (French beans, lentil, peas), marinated vegetables, dishes made from eggs, cheese and fish. One has to take into account the fact that a whole pepper possesses stronger aroma than the ground one.
Photos by Arthur Konovalov
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