6/22/2023 0 Comments Does to kill a kingdom have spiceFrom the 15th Century onwards, exploration, trade and ultimately Empire, opened up cultures in which strong, easily transportable flavours, could be bought relatively cheaply and sold back home as luxuries. The reasons why we have chosen to ignore our native spices in favour of imported flavours are complex and could easily be the subject of several PHDs. (You can read Sheila’s blog about our day out here) When the BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme heard me making this bold claim, they challenged me to show how it could be done, and this is the program we recorded in Galloway in early November By opening our eyes and imaginations to the full extent of our wild larder, its perfectly possible to make richly spiced curries, pakoras, pilafs – pretty much any spice-led dish from around the world – using fungi, seaweeds and the seeds, leaves, flowers and roots of common wild plants. Cloves, fenugreek, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, nutmeg, pepper and dozens more have, over the past 500 years, seduced explorers, traders, gastronomes, chefs and, ultimately entire populations.īut while the flavours of these spices evoke a mistique and exoticism that few would associate with the woods, coast and hedgerows of the UK, its quite easy to find a substitute for pretty much all of them with just a little research, effort and processing. The Western palate is obsessed with “exotic” spices from around the world.
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