The Exotic Spice Trade and the Spices of Asia and Indonesia

The spice aisle at your local grocery is packed with spices that most people never use. For most of us, we're unsure how to use a spice or we hate to pay for a spice for one recipe or dish and then have it sit unused in our cupboards. But many of those spices that are available at our fingertips in the grocery aisle are the stuff of legend and history. Spices from the exotic east changed our world. Without the lure of far east spices traders would not have sought a quicker route to trade with the Orient and perhaps Columbus would not have stumbled on the islands of America.

A Brief History of the Spice Trade

In many ways, the British Empire was founded on the spice trade that allowed them to conquer an entire continent, Asia. Take the ordinary pepper in your pepper shaker. As you grind some fresh pepper for your steak, consider that pepper was so valued in the 14th century that a pound of pepper would have made you a rich man or woman. The search for spices of the orient like pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg sent nation sailing across the ocean in search of new and faster routes to the Orient and it's wealth of spices.

Spices were important before the explorers ventured forth on the seas in search of the exotic ones of the far east, but their trade was governed for centuries by the Middle East and North African merchants who closely guarded their sources. They knew the power that they held and the wealth that they could accumulate in the spice trade. Europe had no good access to the fabled eastern sources.

Spices and their trading can be traced as far back to 2600BC where records have been found that detail Egyptians using spices from Asia to give the labourers building the Great Pyramid, strength. Archaeologist have found cloves, numeg and spice in Syria, even though they can only be grown in the spice islands of Indonesia.

Europe was importing spice from the middle east before the Roman Empire grew to power. In the 11^th century, Marco Polo brought home from his trips to China tales of spices growing and prepared prepared for use.

During the 1300's, a pound of nutmeg in Europe was worth seven fattened oxen and was considered more valuable than a pound of gold! Nobles were the consumers in the spice trade, driven by their desire for spices for medicine, embalming and culinary uses. That all changed when the Kings and Queens of Europe decided to figure out how to acquire spice without the middlemen of the Middle East and Africa.

By the 1400's, the great sailing ships of Europe took to the seas to find what? New lands, or colonies? To research or bring Christianity to other peoples? No...they went in search of a route to the spices of the East. Columbus may have been the first to set sail, but it was Vasco De Gama who in 1498 sailed into what it now Calicut, Malibar, part of those fabled Spice Islands.

As his men set foot on shore, they claimed the land by cheering, "For Christ and spice." It may have been both of these slogans that fueled European Exploration of the New World, but it was spice that caused the wars of Europe to erupt in the 15^th century as they fought for control of the Spice Trade. Portugal held the lead for years, but Italy and Spain fought for their share and eventually the Dutch took the lead away until the mammoth British Empire conquered Asia.

The history of the spice trade is fascinating for we epicurean types who like to know how our modern foods evolved . You can check out more detailed history at several good sources online, listed below in the resource section.

Just think, America was discovered because some King wanted a tastier dinner.

How to use the exotic spices of The Spice Islands

For us in the modern world, the exotic spices of the far east are found quite easily in our grocery store aisles, no need to fight or pay stupendous prices for the delicious wealth that spices add to our foods. Don't be afraid to experiment, you just might discover a new spice blend that will be the next culinary wonder. Mix and match and layer spices in food dishes to change the flavor of that plain old chicken.

Coriander comes from India and Morocco the North Africa. It is also known by the its leaves, cilantro. It's a relative of flat leaf parsley and the seeds when ground or used whole spice up dishes with a very lemony peppery flavor. It is most often used in meat and vegetables dishes, pickles, salsas and even in some baked goods.

Curry comes from the leaves of a curry plant native to India and is found all through the subcontinent of India. It's also found in Srilanka and in Indonesia, Burma, and Thailand. It is a very distinctive taste and has a strong sweet aroma when heated. It's more powerful when fresh, as are most spices. The curries of India are derived from the spice used in their preparations.

Lemongrass comes from the fibrous plant stalk of the same name and is essential for Thai foods. It grows throughout Southeast Asia where it is used in soups, fish and meat dishes and even breads. It's a very lemony, citrusy flavor that is clean and refreshing to the palate. It's most often purchased dried in America, but I highly recommend fresh lemongrass stalks! About a foot long, look for firm light green stalks. It can be found in many Asian grocery stores in the United States.

Star Anise is the dried fruit of a tree native to Japan and China but is now cultivate almost exclusively in China. It is essential in some Chinese dishes and tastes a bit like fennel, but with a more licorice flavor. It's used in poultry and pork dishes, great with pork! It's one of the five spices in Chinese Five Spice Blend.

Tamarind is also known as the Indian date. It's bean shaped pod is found in the West Indies, India and Southeast Asia. But guess where you most likely have tasted tamarind? In Worcestershire sauce. Those English added this sticky paste in many of their soups, chilies, and chutney dishes. It adds a very distinctive pleasant pungent sour taste to soups, stews, and poultry dishes.

Tumeric is a relative of ginger and most often used in pickles and relishes in Western cookery. It's delicious in bean and curry recipes. Tumeric is sold ground in a fine powder and a little bit of turmeric adds a wallop of flavor.

Sichaun Pepper is not related to our black pepper berry at all, but is a dried berry of a Chinese prickly ash tree. It's most often used as a table condiment in China and in that fabled Chinese five spice blend. It's spicy and has a numbing tingly taste when left on the tongue. It's a hot taste!

Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world! It is made by picking and drying the stigmas of crocuses, exactly 75,000 blossoms or 225,000 hand-picked stigmas to make a single pound. Most people do not know that or have even used or heard of saffron. The resulting dried threads give a brilliant yellow color to dishes with a distinctive bitter aroma but with a highly perfumed taste, very exotic. You either love saffron or you hate it. It's used in soups, sauces, fish and rice dishes and some cakes and breads. Paella often uses a small amount of saffron with turmeric and curry powder to get the "yellow rice look" of true Paella.

What about some of those spice blends?

Curry Powder is what many of us in the west use when we make curries, but curry powder isn't just ground curry leaves. It's composed of several spices blend together. It's a basic Indian spice of chilies, coriander seeds, cumin, black peppercorns, fenugreek seeds, ground ginger and turmeric with just a bit of dried curry leaf.

5-Spice Powder is one of the best know Chinese Spice blends although many chefs make up their own secret 5-spice blends. Typically it is a combination of star anise, Sichuan pepper, cinnamon, fennel seeds, and cloves and is used as a seasoning for roast meat, poultry and marinades and all manner of Chinese sauces.

Try a bit of exotic spice tonight and journey to the Spice Islands of history. After all, if they were good enough for Kings and Queens, they are good enough for us!