Cookbook Review: "The Spice Kitchen"

"Eat locally but season globally" is the favorite mantra of Sara Engram and Katie Luber, who along with Kimberly Toqe authored "The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices", a book I recently received to review. Engram and Luber turned a passion for spices into a business with The Seasoned Palate or TSP Spices, selling pure, organic spices in the US, Canada and Europe. Foodies who grew up in the South hanging out in the kitchen and eating simple family meals, they now like to spice up those family favorites with a variety of different herbs and spices.

"The Spice Kitchen" is a gorgeous hardback book, full of more than 100 recipes for Breakfast, Salads, Soup & Sandwiches, Appetizers and Snacks, Entrées, Side Dishes, and Desserts and Sweets, lots of simple classics given an extra "oomph" by the different spices. The book gives the history of spices and a guide to the many herbs and spices found in the recipes. There are beautiful photos sprinkled throughout the book and side bars with interesting information as well as fun facts. (For example, did you know that Oregano was once a popular ingredient for brewing beer and ale before brewers began replacing it with hops?)

With so many delicious sounding recipes, it was difficult to choose what to make to give this book a good "road test" but I finally managed to narrow it down to a few recipes that sounded especially good to me.

Stroganoff of any kind is a favorite of mine and so the Hamburger Stroganoff was the first recipe I made. I used some ground bison that I had on hand, replaced the sour cream with non-fat Greek yogurt and served it on whole grain rotini. The key spice in this recipe is marjoram, which the authors call "a sweeter, milder cousin of oregano"...with a "delicate, mildly spicy taste." The stroganoff was savory, creamy, tasted great and went together quickly, making it a great weeknight comfort food meal. A keeper recipe.

The Roasted Spiced Cauliflower had me at the mere mention of capers, but it also includes some of my other favorites--ground cumin and coriander, chopped green olives and pine nuts. The capers, olives and nuts are thrown in for the last 10 minutes of roasting and elevate the roasted cauliflower from good to delicious. A really great combination of flavors in this one.

There was a restaurant by where I used to work that had the best pea salad. It was so good that we all used to crave it and go to lunch there specifically for that salad. Of course it had bacon and a ranch-style dressing, making it not the healthiest dish ever, but it was really good. When I saw there was a Green Pea Salad recipe in the book, I had to try it. This version has feta, shallots and a combination of tarragon, fennel seed and dried lemon zest. The salad is dressed in mayonnaise, but only 5-6 tablespoons for the recipe so not too heavy. (I used a light olive oil mayo). Delicious--I made the whole recipe and have been happily eating it for lunch and dinner. The feta takes the place of the bacon in my old favorite pea salad nicely, and the combination of spices is unusual and works really well. I will make this one again.

I made a partial recipe of the Fennel Seed Soda Bread Rolls to go with it, thinking it would pair nicely with the fennel seed in the pea salad. (Partial only because I knew if I made more I would eat them). Made with buttermilk, the book says they were inspired by Irish Soda Bread. A tasty roll, reminding me of how much I like the taste of fennel seeds.

Finally, since I am trying to be a bit cleaner and leaner in my eating, I decided to forgo making a dessert (difficult to do with recipes like Bittersweet Chocolate Chip-Ginger Cookies, Cardamom Crème Brûlée and Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting!), instead making the Spiced Yogurt and Granola Parfait.


The base is the Spiced Granola with Coconut and Almonds which is delicious. I love homemade granola and make it frequently, but the combination of spices in this one, cinnamon, green cardamom, ginger and orange zest along with vanilla and sea salt was incredibly good. The spices were combined with rolled oats, flaked coconut, sliced almonds, chopped pecans and flax seeds and a stick of butter--which might also contribute to how tasty it was. ;-) (I used a Earth Balance vegan "butter" stick which has the same calories as butter but less cholesterol). This granola is pretty addicting and I am sure I will make it again.

The Spiced Yogurt is easily whipped up by adding ground cinnamon and ground ginger to yogurt. The recipe calls for vanilla yogurt but I used my plain non-fat Greek yogurt and added a bit of vanilla extract to it. Excellent! But take that granola and yogurt and put them together with fruit in the Spiced Yogurt and Granola Parfait and you have perfection. Although the recipe called for mixed berries, I went with a fall theme and used chopped pear and pomegranate. With the wonderful spices in the yogurt and granola combined with the fruit, the parfaits were delicious and perfect for breakfast, a snack or even dessert. I left the peel on the green pear and when combined with the bright ruby red of the pomegranate, I think it is gorgeous to look at too. Yum, Yum & Yum! I enjoyed every bite.

I thoroughly enjoyed cooking out of this beautiful book. Everything I made turned out well and was very easy to prepare. I still have several delicious-sounding recipes tagged to make and think this may become a new favorite cookbook. If you love spices it is definitely one to add to your own collection or it would make a nice gift along with some spices for a foodie relative or friend.

So what is your favorite spice?