Quote: (01-19-2018 10:30 PM)kbell Wrote:
I have a beef/lamb day, chicken/egg/turkey, and a bean/fish day. I'm not supposed to eat the same thing each day including spices and fruits. This is avoid developing new foods sensitivities.
Spices I'd like to know if there are rules for spices and meat, and fruits. I tend to throw things together which taste good to me, but I'm sure there is a better way of matching spices with food.
There's no rules per se, but there are certain spice combinations which go together quite well.
A better way of narrowing it down is by asking what ethnic flavor profile are you going for? Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Korean, Middle Eastern, African, Nordic...?
I have certain spices I reach for when cooking certain foods. When cooking lentils I almost always use cumin. For raw fish preparations like crudo and tartare, I really like toasted, ground coriander. I'm a huge fan of coating pork in fennel seeds before roasting or grilling. Chicken gets a classic poultry blend of dried sage, parsley, sage, thyme, and rosemary. A good cut of beef needs nothing more than black pepper. It's common to make a nut crust for fish, usually by mixing slivered almonds or other nuts with softened butter, and then putting a slab of that butter on fish before roasting. The butter melts, leaving a crust of toasted nuts on the fish. I'm a big fan of mixing other spices into that butter mixture like ground ginger, coriander, fennel, and even ground up chamomile. Nordic flavors go very well with fish as well, especially fresh dill, which is an herb, not a spice. Try cooking salmon on a slab of cedar; soak the cedar plank in water overnight (make sure it's untreated) and then put a filet of salmon on the cedar plank. Coat the fish filet with finely minced shallots, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and chopped dill. Put the slab directly on a hot grill with the coals moved slightly over so the plank doesn't get too much direct heat. Cook to your desired doneness, and finish with a squeeze of lemon.