i Lead Recipes

The spice trade developed throughout the Middle East at least 4000 years ago with cinnamon and pepper. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that the clove, which is indigenous to Indonesia, could have been introduced to the Middle East very early on. Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen in the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in what is now modern-day Syria, dated to 1700 BC. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants, and in the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Historians estimate that nutmeg was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BC. By Roman times the city of Alexandria in Egypt had become the main trading centre for spices because of its port.

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Spices are dried seeds, fruits, roots, bark or other vegetative substance that are used to flavour foods. They have little, if any, nutritional value. Some spices have medicinal uses as well as being used for culinary purposes. Many of these substances are also used for other purposes, such as medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfumery or eating as vegetables. For example, turmeric is also used as a preservative, licorice as a medicine and garlic as a vegetable. In the kitchen, spices are distinguished from herbs, which are leafy, green plant parts used for flavoring purposes. Herbs, such as basil or oregano, may be used fresh, and are commonly chopped into smaller pieces. Spices, however, are dried and often ground or grated into a powder. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are used both whole and in powder form.

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People have been using herbs for flavouring their cooking for countless generations – certainly well beyond Roman times. In most cases the green leaves of a herb are used, though herbal medicine also makes use of the other parts of a plant, for example its bark, roots, seeds, flowers and berries. A medicinal herb may be a shrub or other woody plant, whereas a culinary herb is always a non-woody plant. In culinary terms these parts of a plant that are not leaves are generally classified as spices. Generally speaking every herb has its own unique aroma and flavour, which is one of the reasons why herbs came to be used in the first place, namely to disguise the flavour of meat that may have been “going off”. It is a wise thing to have a large selection of herbs in your kitchen, if possible fresh ones, though most supermarkets carry a large selection of dried herbs.

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What healthier way is there to start the day than to have an egg for breakfast – something that has become an accepted thing in many households. Eggs are both nutritious and healthy, and it has been shown that they can both help cut calorie intake by up to 415 calories per day, and increase weight loss. If you are lucky enough to have your own hens, so much the better – there is nothing like a freshly laid free-range egg. There are literally thousands of different dishes that you can make with eggs, from the plain boiled, to poached, scrambled, fried, coddled and omelettes – and that’s just eggs by themselves. When it comes to cooking a quick and nutritious meal, there is nothing quicker than an egg dish. Eggs are a healthy, natural food that are packed with protein and essential vitamins and minerals and contain just 80 calories each.

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I love cooking with cream, but I have to admit that I don’t do so often enough. I am lucky in that I have never suffered from any weight or cholesterol problems, so I have as few qualms about cooking with cream as I have when eating streaky bacon. You can use cream for a simple sauce made by adding it to the browned bits left over in a pan, you can use it for a pasta sauce or for a rich crème brulée. When you find yourself at the cream counter at your local grocer, you’ll probably find several different types of cream there. Which one do you chose? If you were to stock only one kind of cream in your refrigerator, I would recommend a double or thick cream. It’s good for whipping, makes perfect sauces and if you need to it can be mixed with milk to thin it down.

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