John Gregory Smith - Mighty Spice Express Cookbook: Fast, Fresh, and Full-on Flavors from Street Foods to the Spectacular

FAST, FRESH AND FULL-ON FLAVORS
FROM STREET FOODS TO THE SPECTACULAR

JOHN GREGORY-SMITH

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Food, recipes, cooking, spices and eating are my life, so when my publisher asked me to follow up my first book, Mighty Spice Cookbook, I was thrilled. I had already been working on new recipes, so it was a great time to pop the question.

The Mighty Spice Cookbook set out to show everyone how simple it was to cook with spices. I never used more than five spices in each recipe and I kept the ingredients supermarket friendly. It made sense that the next step would be to show everyone how fast it is to cook with spices, whatever the occasion. Mighty Spice Express was born, and we started putting ideas down. I always like to introduce new recipes and flavors, so I travel abroad for my research. I carefully chose the countries to visit that would give me the most inspiration for express cooking.

Express obviously meant street food, and this has been a real inspiration for the book. Street food shows the best a place has to offer and a snapshot of whats hot right now. It is always served fast and furious, and can be hot or cold, savory or sweet. But, guaranteed, it will be tasty, fresh and cooked to perfection. Quite simply, if the food doesnt cut the mustard it wont be there the following morning.

DUCKING AND DIVING IN FEZ

Mighty Spice Express took me to the stunning city of Fez in Morocco, which has the oldest working medinaor old part of the cityin the world. This means a vast expanse of car-free city where people live and trade. The buildings are packed so tightly together that most of the streets are actually narrow passages supported by huge wooden struts, which are best navigated by frequent duckingBilbo Baggins and co. would have been perfectly at home.

To an outsider, the city is a maze, and one that needs a guide. Luckily, I had the best in Gail Leonard. Gail organized street-food tours of fabulous Fez and we met one cold January morning by the magnificent Blue Gate. After coffee, we stopped for a sassy sweetbread sandwichfried sweetbreads that were served in a bun with spices and finely chopped onions. It was delicious and, strangely, it worked as a great pick-me-up first thing in the morning. It was also to serve as the inspiration for my Blue Gate Fez Sandwich in the Mighty Bites chapter.

The natural slope of the ancient city took us south. We wound through narrow passages lit by hazy shafts of light and emerged onto one of the main market streets in Fez. Chickens clucked while waiting for someones pot. Alongside the chickens were camel heads, spices, herbs, beautiful juicy strawberries, olives, nuts, harissa paste and a wonderful little stand that sold bessara. Bessara is a breakfast soup made from fava beans. Its rich and thick and perfect for keeping hungry workers full until lunchtime. My bowl was seasoned heavily with chili and cumin and tasted utterly sublime.

SPECIALTIES FROM THE SEA AT ESSAOUIRA

After Fez I took the train south to the remarkable coastal town of Essaouira. There are times when my job is unbelievable, and this was one of them. I arrived at this magical place and went for a long run along the beach. Kite surfers took off in the sparkling waters around me, horses galloped along the shore and the whole time the setting sun framed the walled city like a movie. I even made some new friends of the canine variety, who followed me all the way back to my hotel. This became slightly awkward when I had to navigate through the fashionable cafs of the town, red-faced, sweating and trailed by stray dogs.

Mighty Spice Express is about making any meal an occasion fast. Fish and shellfish cook quickly, and Essaouira fed my mind, tummy and soul with seafood. I was inspired at every turn, especially when I had dinner at Samsnot quite the evocative Moroccan-nights name I would have come up with for the best seafood place in town, but who am I to judge? Sams was located at the end of the pier, past the rocking fishing boats, dried nets and slightly spooky seagulls. From the outside the restaurant looked like a blue-and-yellow lobster shack from Family Guy. Inside, the decor of jewel-encrusted spider crabs and black-and-white photographs of Hollywood stars was equally baffling, but the food was on the money. It was coastal Moroccan with a classic French twistwow! Get in a taxi right now, ask for Sams and order the monkfish skewers. You will not be disappointed.

COCONUT, FENUGREEK AND THE BRIGHT COLORS OF INDIA

The next stop for my research was IndiaGoa to be exactwhere the coconut curries and fresh coastal food were all made in no time. Every town has its local food heroes, and in Dabolim its Rita Shinde. From her beautiful garden, Rita taught the local women how to make the excellent, fresh food of southern India. Now, not being local or a woman, I was very lucky she took me on. We went through all the classic Goan dishes, then she taught me about the tamarind-based Hindi food and, finally, the Catholic Goan cuisine, which used the pungent local vinegar in abundance. Her reshado sauce has been an utter revelation for me and I am happy to say that it has inspired several of the dishes in this book.

After Goa, I traveled north to Mumbaia melting pot of all that India has to offer. This particular trip was made extra special by two people, Lizzie and Amish. With Lizzies military organizational skills and Amishs local knowledge, I ate everything in Mumbai! They even arranged a low-key visit to Dharavi, one of the famed city slums. I dont know why, but for some reason I had been geared up for a massive bout of Western guilt. I expected to see horrific things, but the trip was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had in my whole life.

The slumwrongly named because it suggests something bleakis a fully functioning city within a city. Hundreds of thousands of people live, work and socialize here. Working conditions are pretty terrible, but there is such life and energy! Everyone was busy working in industrysorting plastics, building machinery, sewing clothes, making soap and producing most of Mumbais poppadoms. There was more of a sense of community in that place than I have ever felt anywhere else before. Everyone knew one another. They chatted, they worked and they went to the main street to eat, drink, shop and even go to the movies. The residential areas were spotless. People took pride in where they lived. For every bit of dreary gray, the inhabitants love of bright colors prevailed. For every funny odor, the wonderful smells of fenugreek and coconut oil filled the air. Even the constant noise of the traffic was drowned out by high-pitched Hindi love songs. I loved it and even now I can feel goose bumps while Im writing about my time there. I feel honored to have been to Dharavi.

EATING FOR FOUR IN THE FAR EAST

The final area my research for Mighty Spice Express took me to the Far East. Having already spent time in Thailand and Laos, I decided to expand my knowledge and go to Seoul and northeastern China to learn something new. Seoul was crazya vast metropolis of cool people, wicked food and technology that would have humbled the Starship Enterprise.

I kicked off my first night by exploring the low-level restaurants that lined the cross streets between the skyscrapers of Gangnam District. For some reason, every restaurant I went into threw me out. Tired and hungry, and feeling a bit like I hadnt been picked for the sports team, I retired to my hotel. Thankfully, the next day I was informed that it was not because I was weird and Western, but because the restaurants in question served huge sharing dishes that were way too big for one person. Armed with this invaluable local information I returned, asked for a table for four and ate everything myself.