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Containers for storing
The best container for storing spices, spicy pastes and mixes is a glass jar with a locking lid. You can buy as a whole set of these jars or buy them separately of different sizes.
Nutmeg grater
A special miniature grater designed for grating a specific quantity of nutmeg. If you don't have an opportunity to purchase nutmeg grater, you can take usual grater for this purpose. Nutmeg grater is also useful when you need to grate lemon peel, ginger, garlic and even chili.
Knife and cutting board
A knife for cutting fresh ingredients should always be well sharpened. I recommend two knives for such purposes: one small to easily peel ginger, garlic and onions; and wide chef's knife of high quality to easily shred fresh ingredients and chop different herbs. You might also want to get a sharpener to take care of your knife sharpness any time you need it. The cutting board is necessary for any manipulations with the knife.
Garlic press
It will help you to quickly crush garlic cloves and sometimes ginger, if necessary.
Kitchen Scales
I strongly recommend that you get a small, and yet, ultra-accurate kitchen scales. They are irreplaceable in those cases when it is required to add an exact amount of ingredient.
PREPARATION OF INGREDIENTS FOR SPICE BLENDS
There are several methods of preparing spices and fresh ingredients for making dry mixes or pastes. The choice depends on particular component, however, no matter what method you would choose, you should keep in mind only one goal – preserving flavor and taste of the ingredient as well as of the whole spicy combination you made.
Roasting.
This process involves warming the whole species up which leads to releasing and intensifying their flavor and aroma. You need to place frying pan on medium heat, warm it up and pour the spices in. Depending on spices size, the warm-up process lasts from one to three, and in some cases up to 5-10 minutes. Do not forget to stir the spices and shake the frying pan constantly to prevent burning the spices. When spices become a bit darker and get to smoking point and you sense a pleasant aroma, that means that spices warmed up enough and essential oils came into effect. After that you should lay the spices out into a plate or a bowl and let them cool down. Once they are cool, you should put them into a mortar or a coffee grinder and bring them to the desired grinding. In most cases, spices are warmed up in a dry frying pan. However, some recipes require roasting spices in hot oil. Usually, this should be done before adding fresh ingredients or for flavoring the oil.
Crushing in a mortar or blender.
Most cooks store their spices as whole spices as this is how they retain their flavour and aroma for a long time, unlike ground spices. When adding spices to a spice blend you certainly need to grind them. Soft spices should be ground in stone mortars while being added little by little – 2 tablespoons per grind. For effective grinding, move the pistil along the seeds in a circular motion. A coffee grinder or blender in turn is very useful for grinding more solid types of spices and giving a powder thickness to the mix. Fresh ingredients such as ginger, garlic, chili and herbs can easily ground in the same mortar. For a more homogeneous paste, use a blender when grinding fresh ingredients. The smaller the pieces you put in the device, the more uniform the paste will be. To combine all the ingredients into a homogeneous paste, you need to add a little of vegetable oil.
Grating.
Sometimes, fresh ingredients such as garlic, ginger, galangal and chili pepper are grated in a grater before being added to the paste. Grater is also very useful for grinding nutmeg and removing the peel from citrus fruits.
Pounding.
Fresh ingredients with a soft texture, such as lemongrass, ginger, galangal and some others are often pounded with the back of the knife (spine) before cooking to release their aroma. Such a technique is used saturate a certain spicy combination with the aroma and flavors of the ingredients listed above just before removing them.
Cutting fresh ingredients.
This method is used for preparing fresh ingredients for making paste out of them. It consists in slicing spices into sticks or small cubes to intensify an aroma of fresh spices such as lime leaves, ginger, chili and lemongrass. Lime leaves are cut into small strips; the chili pepper is cut along into two parts and, after removing the seeds, it can be cut in any form; the white part of the lemongrass after, cutting the outer layer, is cut into rings. A large root of ginger or galangal is cut in following way: cut off a piece of necessary size, peel and cut across the fibers (in a form of thin slices, strips or small cubes). In addition to these ingredients, this method is used to prepare various herbs for paste preparation.
Fresh herbs processing.
After purchase, fresh herbs should be thoroughly rinsed off dust and dirt under ru
In order to separate leaves from soft stalks herbs such as coriander (cilantro), parsley, dill, fe
If you are not going to use fresh herbs immediately, you need to prepare them for temporary storage. Take a small container, cover the bottom with a sheet of paper towels, and put herbs leaves into container. Close the container tightly and place it in the refrigerator. Herbs can be stored for 5-7 days in such a way, so they should be used as intended during this time. You can also use freezer bags to store small bunches of herbs. Just place few stalks in a bag and sprinkle slightly with water. Close the bag tightly and place it in the refrigerator. A bunch of fresh herb can be stored by placing its base in a small container of water, and then put in the refrigerator. You can store herbs about 1-2 days in such a way.