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Add Some Mighty Spice to Your Cooking

24th February 2012 By Urvashi Roe Leave a Comment

Great British Chefs  recently asked me to review The Mighty Spice Cook Book, and being a bit of a spice fiend I was delighted.

John Gregory-Smith, the author of this wonderful book, sounds a lot like me.  He grew up eating lots of different spices, he’s travelled all over the world meeting local people to learn about their cooking and he is generally pretty obsessed with food but spices in particular.

This book starts with a fascinating tour of his travels and the origins of some of the dishes in the book.  He covers China, Mexico, South East Asia, Morocco, Turkey, The Lebanon and of course my India and Sri Lanka.  All growers of some of the most fabulous spices.

I loved the Vanilla in this Lebanese Lemon and Vanilla Cake.

Copyright Urvashi Roe_Mighty Spice Cookbook_Feb 2012-2

Lebanese Lemon and Vanilla Cake

The mix of ginger, turmeric, chilli, lemongrass and garlic in this Malay Yellow Mussel Curry.

Copyright Urvashi Roe_Mighty Spice Cookbook_Feb 2012-12

Malay Yellow Mussel Curry

And couldn’t resist the cumin, coriander, garam masala, black pepper and chilli in this Chana Masala.

Copyright Urvashi Roe_Mighty Spice Cookbook_Feb 2012-14

Delhi Style Chana Masala

Read the full review – you’ll be drooling. I was trying hard not to!

Which spices do you like? 

Related

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: GB chefs, john gregory, spice

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kaz (mrs.chutney) (@Kaz522) says

    24th February 2012 at 9:44 am

    Lebanese Lemon and Vanilla Cake…my kind of heaven *drooooooool*

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      24th February 2012 at 4:01 pm

      LOL drool indeed!

      Reply
  2. thekalechronicles says

    24th February 2012 at 11:27 am

    I had to Google that lemon cake immediately, Urvashi. I love vanilla and lemon. I have met few spices I didn’t like: I am fond of cumin, fennel, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, white pepper. I may try the cashew paste with something other than mussels.

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      24th February 2012 at 4:00 pm

      Ha ha. I just had two slices from the second one I made! I will post my adapted recipe up soon x

      Reply
  3. delicio8 says

    25th February 2012 at 12:16 am

    My eye and imagination was caught by that lemon cake as well. It looks like a pineapple upside down cake but better! I love spices and use them often. Lately I’ve been trying savory spices in dessert type dishes. Like pepper in apple pie! If you put just a hint it’s wonderful.

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      25th February 2012 at 9:17 am

      oooh I like the sound of pepper with apples. Have you tried szechuan pepper with chocolate? that works well too. I’m experimenting with herbs and sweet flavours. Loving Apple and Rosemary and lemon and Thyme at the minute!

      Reply
  4. Ren Behan says

    25th February 2012 at 8:13 am

    Well done on the guest post gig 🙂 I like the look of this book, even better too I’ve spotted a one-day class with him at Leiths and am quite tempted by both the book and the interesting author behind it!

    Reply
    • Urvashi @ The Botanical Baker says

      25th February 2012 at 9:16 am

      Oooh the one day class sounds good. I’d like to go to learn the Mexican spices because those are the ones I’m not so familiar with having never been there. I know he’s in India at the mo but very good on twitter so I’m sure if you tweeted him, he’d let you know a list of his classes x

      Reply
  5. Iona says

    29th September 2012 at 4:55 pm

    can you let me know what adaptations you made to the Lebanese cake recipe? Wanting to bake this but worried it won’t rise at all!

    Reply
    • Urvashi Roe says

      29th September 2012 at 5:02 pm

      Hi Iona. I didn’t make any changes as far as I remember and it doesn’t rise much. More like a batter when it goes into the tin too.

      Reply

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Hi I'm Urvashi!

I love food. This blog is a little glimpse into my foodie world which is an escape from two teenage girls, a busy job and my little cafe.

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