What spices & condements?

[Martyn]

Looking for suggestions as to what to carry with you and how you carry it. I'm betting tabasco sauce is a favourite, but something I discovered recently, was freeze dried whole ginger root. This stuff is great to "hot up" a curry or stir fry and adds loads of flavour. It keeps for just about ever, all you do is shave off a little with yer knife and crumble in yer fingers. No messy powders, easy to cary.

Any more suggestions?

I love spicy food, but what is the most worthwhile carry-along?

 

[sargey]

well not spices per se, but a couple of the most inconvenient things to store/carry: milk and fat. i still don't use milk when out and about, i drink coffee black in the field. but i have found that anchor spreadable can be persuaded to go into one of those re-useable tube things you can get in some camping shops. so i can start using some of those old timey recipes from camping and woodcraft and the like. i can also treat meself to fried eggs! much better than the kilo of mushed lard infesting everything in me ruck!

cheers, and.

 

[bigjackbrass]

Tony Cachere's Cajun Seasoning, which I think I've mentioned before (stop me if I'm obsessing), is fabulous. Use it like salt, but it has tons of flavour and in greater quantity adds quite a bit of fire to bland dishes.

 

[Martyn]

Thanks Jack, I'll look out for it. About milk, I suppose most ppl carry powdered milk or none, but I heard a woman at work saying she only uses condensed milk inher coffee. I said doesnt it get expensive, opening a tin all the time, she says no, because she uses the stuff you get in a tube from tescos, which lasts for months. :idea: Got to try that out.

How do you carry your spices and such? Zip-lock bags?

 

[sargey]

film canisters!

though truth be known i just rob sachets of salt, pepper, sugar and coffee from every cafe, restaurant or hotel i visit only one or two at a time obviously...

cheers, and.

 

[Stew]

film canisters!

I have my coffee pre-mixed in these (and I'm not getting into a debate about it being dangerous to my health! )
You can fit a tsp of coffee, a tsp of powdered milk and about 2 of sugar in a cannister. When I want a drink just pour it in and don't have to worry taking jars.

 

[grumit]

i like chinese five spice powder give's a nice lift to bland food
also dried ginger :-D

 

[alick]

OK - it costs (about 70p each) but 60ml nalgene bottles are not a great deal bigger than a film canister and can also be had in 125ml / 250ml / 500ml and litre sizes. Main thing is that you get a totally reliable lid if you want to carry oil, keep salt dry...
I'm a tea drinker so my answer to the milk problem is to take a nalgene bottle of lemon tea mix that I can drink without.
There are a couple of strong cordials under the "bottle green" brand that make a nice hot drink too. One's black berries and cinnamon - like mulled wine - another ginger and lemongrass. 10:1 dilution so you don't need to carry much.
Cheers.

 

[MartiniDave]

I also pinch as many sachets as I dare from cafes etc. The wife tells me I'm a jackdaw, but she doesn't mind using them on her fish & chips on family days out!

Just finished reading Nessmuk, he swears by salt mixed 30:1 with cayenne peper - will have to try it.

Off now to the lab stores to look thru the stock of small, sterile containers

Dave

 

[dtalbot]

For me it has to be Bristol Blend pepper corns ground just before I go out
David

 

[Brynglas]

For the sake of awakening an old topic, a couple of years ago I made a batch of the Pontack sauce, made with elderberries to the recipe in Richard Mabey's Food for Free, the recipe suggests allowing the stuff to mature for seven years(?) which is a bit long for me, it does definitely improve with age and is great for deglazing a pan for gravy in which gamey meat has been fried.

I've made a couple of more recent batches which I haven't tried yet, I just hope that it's worth the wait.

 

[Adi007]

Sounds interesting!

What does the sauce taste like? In what way would you way it "improves"?

 

[Brynglas]

Sounds interesting!

What does the sauce taste like? In what way would you way it "improves"?

I've made the first batch with red wine and the more recent batches with wine and red wine vinegar, it tastes quite unique really, a hint of the vinegar taste that you would expect, and a strong fruity taste from the elderberries, also there are a lot of cloves and spices such as ginger etc in the mixture, as well as onions which impart their own flavour. The result is a really nice sharp (ish) spiciness which cuts through fatty or gamey meat beautifully, also it's a fantastic purple/red colour. I recommend it.
I can post the recipe if you want a go this autumn.

On a more alcoholic note (!), a fantstic recipe that has become a favourite at home over recent years is Carluccio's elderberry elixir, which is a great jammy syrup which I fortify with whisky. I'm a comitted Islay malt drinker so it's a good way to see off a blended whisky:
the recipe for this is:

2kg elderberries
100ml water
10 cardamom pods
15 cloves
2 cinammon sticks
juice & rind of one lemon
1kg of caster sugar
500ml (or more!) of whisky, brandy or dark rum.
The alcohol is optional.

Cook the berries in the water for 20 mins until the berries turn to a mush. Squeeze them in the pan to get all the juice out and then strain into a bowl through a muslin to strain (Note! this can be messy and make your kitchen look like the Texas Chain saw massacre).
Squeeze as much of the juice as you can out of the berries a discard the pulp that is left. Put the resulting juice, you should have about a litre, into a pan with the the cloves, cardamom and lemon etc. Cook for 10 minutes very gently and add the sugar, stirring over the heat until it melts. When melted bring it back to the boil and cook for a further 10 minutes on a gentle simmer.

Let this syrup cool and strain, it can then be bottled and fortified if you like, according to taste, it's great poured over ice cream, on it's own as a liqueur or with some hot water as a cold/flu remedy.

I love it and would say that it's well worth a go.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Another vote for Cajun seasoning. I am not so keen on really hot stuff, so I have been using the stuff from Schwartz :roll: , but it is good. Hope to be getting a recipe to make my own in a couple weeks.

If film pots are too small, Redoxin tubes are good. I am talking about the plastic tubes of fizzy VitC tablets. They have to be pretty damp proof to stop the tablets going off.

 

[Ed]

Hope to be getting a recipe to make my own in a couple weeks

Any you will post it here I hope ;-)


Ed

 

[Stuart]

I use 'Good With Everything' Herb Sea Salt

its a mixture of herbs and sea salt

I cant remember who makes it i'll look at the container when i get home

like everyone else i keep it in film canisters!

 

[Stuart]

what was that stuff lithril had last weekend that stuff was good

 

[maddave]

Who dares burns hot chili sauce...It's an animal

 

[NickBristol]

Going back a bit to milk in coffee / tea etc, most supermarkets sell a fantastic squeezy tube of condensed milk for about 70p which is easy to carry and durable too. Makes creamy coffee and makes the best sweetener for porridge. I love it

Also, can be 'eaten' direct from the tube as a v sweet instant energy boost tho I've got no doubt my mother would disapprove lol

 

[Raz]

I use "take one" coffee sachets, already white and sweet, easy peasy! Mint hot chocloate sachets are my staple though, never drink the stuff at home, but can't get enough of it when out and about.

As for seasoning, I carry tabasco, a pot of jerk marinade, and an everyday seasoning mill. I don't take anyhting else unless I have somthing specific in mind.