The art of alchemy

  With salt out of the way we can move on to the rest of the flavours you've got at your disposal in the quest to set your tongue on fire. (Editor's warning. He means this metaphorically. Please don't set your tongue on fire. -Ed.). Oh, before we do, something just occurred to me in relation to the technique of removing water from a few posts ago.

  If you cook onions on their own, you'll reduce their water content and eventually caramelise the sugars contained therein and I'm pretty sure you know that caramelised onions are a fab ingredient to add to jazz things up. One of my personal favourites is adding caramelised onions to eggs and scrambling them. Utterly scrumptious!

  The most obvious place to move on to is herbs and spices. Blimey, even the thought of those two words is quite daunting. It's such a huge part of the vocabulary of cooking and I've never really had to consider grouping or organising them until now and I think I need to before I trip over my own feet.

The arsenal of joy.

  Having had a little chat with myself, I think simple is best. No doubt you associate certain regional styles with specific herbs and spices, and for the sake of simplicity I suggest that you don't get too fixated on whether it is 'correct' to mix things up or not. There was a rather heated conversation I remember involving someone who wasn't happy about me wanting to add coriander to a European dish because coriander was North African/Middle eastern. There was much eye rolling, I can tell you.

  This isn't bloody masterchef! If you like the way something tastes with whatever ingredient you fancy then chuck it in by the handful and convention be damned. But before we enter this magical kingdom of unlimited choice, let me remind you that the best way to learn about herbs and spices is to try them out.

  Maybe start with the ones you know or have heard of and spoon a bit in to whatever is bubbling away to see what happens. Actually, it might be safer to put a bit of the bubbling dish into a bowl and experiment on that small quantity first while you get the hang of things. Right then, you feeling ready to delve into pure alchemy? Excellent! See you tomorrow.

Kirk out

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