The search for flavour
Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2016 10:32 pm
At my ripe old age of 43, I find that things don't taste as they did. I appreciate good beer, good sausage (hard to find today as all the old European butchers have retired in Ottawa...oh how I miss Alfred's meats), and I don't cook often enough so my spices are too old.
I made a chilli...the cayenne was good (heat), the Ancho chilli powder was tasteless, the cumin smelled good but was from 2014 and added no flavour. The beef was purchased from a "decent" butcher (but nowhere as flavourful as our own beef), and I kept adding spices to no avail.
I cursed at my spice drawer and vowed to get some better stuff and if that's not good enough than I'll buckle down and get the best stuff from Silk Road in Alberta www.silkroadspices.ca/products
I search for Poblano chillies or the dried Ancho powder from the same peppers. I saw it on a cooking show (Chef Michael Smith) making a pot of chilli....hmmm..gotta get me some of that. I found dried whole Anchos at a Caribbean grocery store....Mugena... (Now a restaurant named Fumi www.fumi.ca looks awesome...i'll have to check it out again!) but they were likely ancient as they snapped when broken (they should have been leathery like sun dried tomatoes). I found dried whole and dried ancho powder at a store in Manotick chilly-chiles.com (oh look they moved to Bayshore Mall in Ottawa!)
No flavour (of course I still didn't know what they should taste like) and then I found some at "Grace in the Kitchen" in Kanata (west Ottawa)...the first bag was great....the second bag tasteless...the store has no volume of sales in chiles (lots of cheese though!). They also had some deArbols and other chilies but I didn't get any.
I found some whole Poblanos at Sobeys grocery in Stittsville!
Next stop Mid-East food store on St. Laurent: I've bought other spices there (no ancho powder on the shelf though :-( ) and they are cheap and sell in huge volumes (i always see embassy cars there as they have red license plates) so thats a good sign.
But I'll have to get ancho and powders and spices (de Arbols? I'll have to get some).
I made a chilli...the cayenne was good (heat), the Ancho chilli powder was tasteless, the cumin smelled good but was from 2014 and added no flavour. The beef was purchased from a "decent" butcher (but nowhere as flavourful as our own beef), and I kept adding spices to no avail.
I cursed at my spice drawer and vowed to get some better stuff and if that's not good enough than I'll buckle down and get the best stuff from Silk Road in Alberta www.silkroadspices.ca/products
I search for Poblano chillies or the dried Ancho powder from the same peppers. I saw it on a cooking show (Chef Michael Smith) making a pot of chilli....hmmm..gotta get me some of that. I found dried whole Anchos at a Caribbean grocery store....Mugena... (Now a restaurant named Fumi www.fumi.ca looks awesome...i'll have to check it out again!) but they were likely ancient as they snapped when broken (they should have been leathery like sun dried tomatoes). I found dried whole and dried ancho powder at a store in Manotick chilly-chiles.com (oh look they moved to Bayshore Mall in Ottawa!)
No flavour (of course I still didn't know what they should taste like) and then I found some at "Grace in the Kitchen" in Kanata (west Ottawa)...the first bag was great....the second bag tasteless...the store has no volume of sales in chiles (lots of cheese though!). They also had some deArbols and other chilies but I didn't get any.
I found some whole Poblanos at Sobeys grocery in Stittsville!
Next stop Mid-East food store on St. Laurent: I've bought other spices there (no ancho powder on the shelf though :-( ) and they are cheap and sell in huge volumes (i always see embassy cars there as they have red license plates) so thats a good sign.
But I'll have to get ancho and powders and spices (de Arbols? I'll have to get some).