SEC-S19 / W2 | Culinary terminology and proper use of herbs and spices.

This is an interesting topic this week and I learnt a lot from the difference spices that are available on the different combinations of spices.

What I really enjoyed most in this lesson is the culinary terminology. Honestly, I never gone through this subject before and little wonder one needs to pass through 3 years to study to be a chef.

This week topic is really a good one Link

I really like cooking with spices, If not for flavours but for the good medicinal effects it has and the body. So for this reason I even planned spices in my garden, I have turmeric, ginger, curry leaf, azuza seed and uyayak tree all planted in my house. I harvest this spices when they are mature and ripe for harvesting and dry them then blend them to powder for use.

So as part of reminder to what I learned, I would like to give answers to this week course questions.

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Three Culinary terms and their definitions

CHIFFONADE; is a cutting technique in which a leafy greens is thinly sliced into a long strip that can be used for a garnish or cooking soup. It can be any leaf used for garnishing such as spinach, basil, garbage, azuza, mint, lettuce etc.

For example in the picture below I used one Utazi leaf to garnish iseuwu as seen in the two images below 👇

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GARNISH; is a technique of using edible item or a substance to decorative touch added to dishes and beverages, in some cases this substance may add flavour to the dish. Garnishing may include sprigs of parsley or any other greens, vegetables, sliced fruits, sauces, bits of herbs, or edible flowers.

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MARINATE; is a process of soaking meat, fish or vegetables in a flavored liquid such as liquid sauce, which helps to either soften or absorbs the flavor before cooking. It can be vinegar, oil, lemon, wine, beer, or herbs and spices, this helps in making your meat or fish tasty after being cooked.

While preparing babeque catfish, I made a barbecue sauce, well spiced and tasty. I used it to marinate my catfish, foiled it and then put it aside for some minutes before cooking it with charcoal.

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Did you know the spices shared in this course and their uses? What other spices would you add to the list?

During this course I identified some of the spices that I know and their uses. Such as cinnamon, clove, garlic, ginger, Cardamom, Basil, pepper, Cumin seed, Cardamom, vanilla, tumeric, nutmeg.

But there is more to this that I know and I will like to share some of our local spices available over here. There are so many but I will like to mention just two that is mostly seen in my kitchen.

Uyayak; is a spice and a herb that is mostly seen in some homes of Nigerian women. It is a spice that is mostly use in pepper soup, afia efere, porridge dishes and stew. The flavour is topnotch as it is also use making roasting and babeque sauce. I like using this spice in my dishes, it also serves as herbs when combined with other herbs to prepare a natural medicine.

Azuza seed generally known as black pepper, it is the king of spice, it add flavour to dishes and is mostly used in pepper soup, afia efere and sauce for grilling meat or fish.

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Combination of spices I mostly use in cooking and what prepare with it

When it comes to combination of spices I know I've used so many masala recipe but the one I mostly use is curry masala. I used it for barbecue sauce, I use it to spice anything am grilling, I use it for fried rice, jollof rice, vegetable sauce, porridge dishes, chicken sauce, for steaming or fish and meats. I mostly use tiger foods curry masala, you can check this link for the price Tiger foods production

I also use cinnamon, tumeric, clove, ginger, garlic, pepper, rosemary, bay leaf, thyme etc. Used differently in different dishes prepared. I have all of them at home for mostly steaming of fish and meat and the preparation of stew or sauce, or any other preparation that requires it.

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We would like to encourage you to prepare one of the 7 most famous spice mixes in the world or the most used spice mix in your country of origin.

I do prepare spices for both commercial use and home use. When I say commercial us, it os one of our family business which is grilling of barbecue, fish, pork, chicken barbecue and any other barbecue you may think of, fried rice, jollof rice, stew and any other thing.

Jollof and stew mixed spices

In this spices I mixed, thyme, bay leaf, nutmeg, curry, dry red bell pepper/ tatashe and spicity jollof spice.

So I use this to prepare African jollof rice and it is always very delicious.

I like using spice to cook and I would say, I so much appreciate this course I've learned a lot from it.

Thank you gastronomy team for bringing up this topic this week looking forward to learn more courses from this teaching team.