I let a genie out of its bottle when I posted my first ‘Lost & Found’ just a few weeks ago. Now I can’t stop tripping over new ones! Today’s ‘lost’ technique is truly ancient. Traditional cooks in Asia have been ‘toasting’ their spices for centuries…
Chinese Five-Spice Blend toasting in the pan…
There’s really not much to say about toasting your spices before adding them to dishes. It’s an especially valuable hack to bring out the most in savoury dishes, such as favourites from Asia, the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and South America…
Simple idea – complex flavours
If you’ve been wondering how authentic Asian and other ‘spicy’-culture cooks achieve their amazing, deep, rich, complex flavours… It’s probably because they routinely use an ages-old traditional tech-nique to prep the spices.
Simply put, toasting your spices releases their essential oils, intensifying their flavor, aroma, and colour, and making them more potent, nuanced and complex.
What you do
You can toast your spices in a small dry skillet or add some oil, depending on the recipe instructions and the style of cuisine you’re working on. Dry toasting is also important, in that it removes residual moisture from whole spices, and makes crushing and grinding them easier.
Toasting in oil can be the first step to creating a spice extract you can employ discretely in all manner of recipes.
Place your whole spices in the pan and place the pan on medium-low to medium heat. NO HOTTER! Your spices will burn for sure.
Stir and toss for a couple of minutes until you can smell the spice aromas released by the heat. You may have to allow three or 4 minutes for large whole spices such as Star Anise and Cinnamon sticks. They just take longer to heat through.
How you grind them
If you don’t already have a mortar and pestle (and the patience and muscle power to use it properly) you can use a small hand-cranked coffee grinder. But the best solution is a small electric coffee grinder you’ll use only for grinding spices. Large spices will need the bar-blender treatment to cut them down to size.
My take
I need to make a significant admission, in the interests of full disclosure and transparency. I’ve known for decades about toasting spices. It’s been no secret to me. But I’ll admit (no. 2) that’ve slacked off on this almost magical practice since the Millennium, and especially since the COVID Crisis.
So I can legitimately say, I at least misplaced (if not totally lost) this crucial technique. And now it’s found me again!
~ Maggie J.