The Kitchen Witch Glossary of Cooking Herbs & Spices

By Mimi Riser

A magical, medicinal, gastronomical 3-in-1 herbal reference guide!... With so many seasonings so readily available today, what a shame we often use so few. Especially since herbs aren't just for flavor. Given the health benefits many herbs possess, their ability to enhance a food's taste could be viewed as a mere fringe benefit. That's why this glossary lists not only the culinary information for fifty (50) different herbs and spices, but also their medicinal properties -- and, as an added bonus, their "magical" properties, too, making this a three-in-one reference. You'll also find here tips for handling herbs, zesty recipes to try, an additional glossary of medicinal-effects terms, and a generous sprinkling of spicy history and lore. A big bunch of info all packed into one wonderful and whimsical little book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mimi Riser
• Release date: Mar 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458028549

Mimi Riser

Mimi Riser is a longtime author of fiction and nonfiction, including several series and spanning a variety of genres (with flavors ranging from sweet to spicy hot). Her books celebrate the upbeat, the offbeat, and “beating the odds.” She began life in the urban northeast, but now resides in the rural southwest with her best friend & husband Rob.

Book preview

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THE KITCHEN WITCH

GLOSSARY OF

COOKING HERBS & SPICES

Mimi Riser

www.mimiriser.com

The Kitchen Witch Collection

Copyright © 2010 by Mimi Riser

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition, Smashwords License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

[Disclaimer: The herbal and health information in this book is offered primarily for reference and education. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice of a licensed health-care practitioner. Since the actual use of herbs, therapies, etc. by others is beyond the author’s and publisher’s control, no expressed or implied guarantee as to their effects can be given, nor liability taken.]

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Chapter 1

Seasoned Greetings!

As I write this I’m remembering back to a time long ago when I survived on a diet of nothing but rice and lentils. For weeks. Mind you, I like rice and lentil stew and still eat it often, but when I make it now it’s a meal to be proud of, one that perfumes the house with rich savory steam and sets taste buds tingling.

In those lean days, it wasn’t a stew. It was just… rice and lentils, with naught to enliven it but a bit of salt. How I longed for even a pinch of pepper then. I could well appreciate how valuable spices once were, why traders often trekked dangerous routes to procure them. And I understood why every kitchen garden once devoted part of its precious earth to aromatic herbs. Food with little flavor—or just the same flavors repeated—may keep us alive, but it makes for a darned dull existence.

Sure we can escape mealtime tedium by varying the foods we eat, but we can excite things even more by varying how we season those foods, and one needn’t be a master chef to do that. It requires no cooking skill at all to sprinkle in an herb or a spice. All one needs is a little daring and a little knowledge of what works with what. That last is where this glossary will help. Among the fifty herbs and spices presented here, you’ll find old standards like pepper and cinnamon along with not-so-standards, such as hyssop and violets.

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