The Spice Shop

Mirin, 300ml
Unit price: £6.99 (approx. €7.83)
Shipping Weight: 400g

A low-alcohol sweet, golden wine made from glutinous rice. Essential in Japanese cooking.

Recipe: Mix mirin with soya sauce and sake to make teryaki sauce. Pan-fry a salmon fillet until almost done, discard oil. Pour teryaki sauce into the frying pan over the salmon and fry on high heat for another 3 minutes, turning the fillet over to cover it with sauce. Remove as the sauce reduces and begins to carmelize, but before it burns!

Parsley

Make a parsley sauce for white fish: make a thin bechamel and add single cream and lots of dried parsley before serving. Delicious! You can also make a kidney cleansing tea from dried parsley.

Green Peppercorns

For a steak sauce: after frying your steak, add a good lump of butter to the pan. When melted, add a couple of teaspoons of green peppercorns and a chopped clove of garlic. Fry gently, then add 1 tbsp of good brandy, 2 tsp wholegrain mustard and 100 ml single cream. Let the sauce bubble up, then pour it over the steak.

Aniseeds, green

Try making shortbread flavoured with aniseed: Mix 4 oz butter + 2 oz sugar. Add 6 oz plain flour and 2 tsp aniseeds. Roll the dough out to 1/2" thickness and stamp out biscuits. Chill for 20 mins then bake at 190°/gas 5 for 15-20 mins. Cool on the tray.

Ajowan - Carom - Kings Cumin

East African chicken soup is awesome with ajowan! Brown some onions and crushed peanuts or cashews in oil, add chopped up chicken leg - skin bones and all, they add to the flavor - brown on all sides, cover with water and cook with cumin and ajowan seeds until done; finish by stirring in a can of coconut milk. The ajowan balances out the sweetness of nuts and milk; really good quick soup.