The Spices of Life

clockwise from top: turmeric, poppy seed, cumin, garam masala, sesame, green cardamon, chipotle chili, mustard seed, fenugreek and celery seed(middle)

Polynesian cuisine is generally very simple and delicious, but apart from vanilla, it's pretty low on the old spice factor. We just don't grow a great deal of spices here, and while I've been introduced to some new flavours, such as the Tahitian basil, there are definitely some flavours that I've been missing. I go through a lot of recipes on the web, and am particularly jealous of the exuberance of Caribbean cookery, which relies on many of the same fruits and veggies that we have here and then all those lovely spices. Having spent some time living in the Bay Area in California, I was also totally spoiled by the sheer variety of good food from all over the world, here in Rurutu I've been really missing Indian and Mexican food (and have the occasional yearnings for Korean, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese). While we can grow some things like coriander, parsley and basil in the garden, it was just not enough, and even in Tahiti spices are not that easy to come by. So, I took some positive action a few months ago and ordered bulk spices over the internet - at great expense and with a great deal of complicated customs dealing in between, but it was worth every franc of import duty, it's so nice to have things like mustard seed and cinnamon in hand and in quantity! I'm particularly excited to have bought some chipotle chili powder - it smells just delicious. So now I can actually try the recipes for curried taro and Gujarat-style taro leaves that I found when I was researching the taro entry! I haven't tried either yet, but I have made my own samosas and yesterday we had a kicking lamb and aubergine curry with dhal and home-made naan (I don't have the onion seeds or the tandoor, so while the naan were tasty, they were not quite what I had in mind). I've also been going a little crazy surfing for recipes - in particular, I've been enjoying homemade tahini, indulging a pregnant-lady craving for lemon-poppy seed cake, as well as real chai and cardamon infused hot-chocolate (a sophisticated take on the old favourite, for you chocolate-lovers).

My delicious Polynesian chai: infused with ginger, cardamon, vanilla, cinnamon and cloves, complete with powdered milk!