Mistress of Spices

Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever.

Women never throw out spices.

The Egyptians were buried with their spices.

I know which one I'm taking with me when I go.

(Erma Bombeck)

-Star anise.

. Cinnamon . Star anise. Clove.

 

Escalivada anyone?

Hi guys!

I have been down with sore throat, cough .... etc. It seems like it comes in a package.  I have no appetite to eat, but last night I cooked Escalivada, which I enjoyed very much  

Escalivada is a typical preparation of Catalan (Spanish) cuisine that consists of several types of grilled vegetables, such as eggplants (genus Solanum), sweet red peppers (genus Capsicum), red tomatoes (Solanum esculentum), and sweet onions. Once well cooked on the grill, those vegetables are peeled and sliced in strips, the seeds removed, and seasoned with olive oil and salt, and sometimes with garlic as well. Escalivar means to cook in hot ashes. Typically the vegetables in an escalivada are grilled, and the dish is served with grilled meats. Mountain shepherds were adept at packing their rucksacks with some cheese and wine and building a hardwood fire near a revetment of their sheep's pasture where they could grill a medley of vegetables. (Source Wikipedia)

Last night I used aubergine, pumpkin, bellpepper (capcicum), tomatoes, garlic , and of course olive oil to brush the vegetables and finaly sprinkle some cumin.

This is how it looks like after the vegetable are cooked and before I peeled the skin of the vegetables:

 And, this is after the skin been taken out and it's ready! Yum yum ... You can add more olive oil, black pepper and salt.

Sometimes I replaced pumpkin with potatoes. You can just use any vegetables that you like. I tried using fennel bulb once (as suggested by the original recipe) but I don't quite like it, I don't know what such a big deal about fennel bulb. Maybe I haven't acquired the taste :)