Spring your spices from their sealed jars and
add them to a new recipe. Photo of
star anise courtesy Wikimedia.

And then there are those that were bought for a recipe—like cardamom for Christmas cookies or cloves for the Easter ham. After you’ve made the recipe, the bottle of spice just lingers on the shelf.

Certain wines age well as they sit; but not spices or herbs. So use them up before they age out. Here are examples of how to expand your perspective:

• Cardamom is a popular ingredient in India (its home), as well as in Middle Eastern and Scandinavian dishes. You can use it every day to flavor tea or coffee, curries, desserts (including rice pudding) and mulled wine. Steep it with your tea—add some cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and peppercorns—and you’ll have made masala chai (spiced tea). Perhaps it’s time to make chai rice pudding.

• Cloves, whole or ground, cloves can be add to soups, stews or curries. Whole cloves are either steeped or studded into an ingredient (ham, leg of lamb, onion, potato and oranges, for example—in fact, if you have too many cloves, make pomanders). Add a bit of clove to marinades and sauces. Steep a few cloves with your favorite tea. Use ground cloves to season fish and seafood. Bake a spice cake with cloves, cardamom and your other “holiday spices”—delicous flavors that should be enjoyed year-round.
• Star anise is perhaps the least known of this trio, but it’s very versatile—try it in anything form pork dishes to teriyaki. It gives a bit of Asian flair to everything, including soups and stews. Our chef pops one star into just about everything—even when he’s just sweating onions. In the drinks department, it’s the perfect season to add star anise to hot cider, mulled wine and tea.

Want suggestions for how to use up your spices? Just ask!

Have you checked your spices for freshness lately? See how.

Earlier today, we challenged you to make rabbit-shaped dumplings to celebrate the Year Of The Rabbit. The new Chinese lunar year begins on February 3rd.

While the secret to making the rabbit shape is not in this video, you will see how easy it is to make boiled Chinese dumplings.

You can use the filling of your choice (chicken, beef, lamb, pork, vegetables, seafood, etc.), or click for recipes at the end of the video.

Find recipes and reviews of our favorite international foods.

KAMUT® (kah-MOOT) is the manufacturer and brand name of a Khorasan wheat that is available in the US. Khorasan is an ancient wheat, the grain of which is two times larger than modern wheat. It has a rich, nutty flavor. As produced by Kamut, it’s organic and whole grain—just as it was in the time of the Pharaohs.

And it’s better for you than modern wheat: higher in protein and many minerals, especially magnesium, selenium and zinc. It has a higher percentage of lipids, which produce more energy in the body than wheat’s carbohydrates. Think of it as high energy wheat, better for athletes and anyone looking for high energy food. Learn more at Kamut.com.

While we haven’t loved every whole grain pasta we’ve tried, pasta made from Kamut/Khorasan wheat merits your attention. We’ve been serving it up and no one has noticed that it isn’t conventional pasta—whereas we did get complaints from picky eaters about whole other wheat pasta.

Pasta made from the ancient wheat,
Khorasan. Organic and whole grain, it’s
become our daily pasta.

The ancient grain of the Pharaohs was einkorn (a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week).

But at some point, Khorasan wheat was introduced into Egypt (the modern name is balady durum, or native durum), possibly by invading armies of Greeks, Romans, or the later Byzantines.

Khorasan is the Pahlavi (Persian) word for “the land of sunrise.“ The ancient land of Khorasan included territories that presently are part of Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The wheat can still be found growing in small plots in Turkey, the home of Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark. Legend says that Khorasan wheat, which is also called Camel’s Tooth or the Prophet’s Wheat, was the grain Noah brought on the ark.

So, have a taste.

Kamut sells its Khorasan wheat to different manufacturers, who turn it into hot cereal, cold cereal puffs and corn flakes, pancakes and much more, from puffed corn cakes (similar to rice cakes) to baking flour.

Take a bite of bunny dumplings for the
Year Of The Rabbit. Photo by A.S. Whitman |
THE NIBBLE.

Passing through Delhi, he dined at an haute cuisine Chinese restaurant, The House of Ming. It features both Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine, but our intrepid reporter went straight for the dim sum (Cantonese).

From the field, here is his photo of Chef Wang’s irresistible rabbit-shaped steamed crystal dumplings. The eyes are made of chili oil and black sesame seeds.

It is the Year Of The Rabbit, after all (or will be on February 3, the first day of the Chinese year 4709). While the Chinese New Year is always celebrated with good food, we’ve never seen a better interpretation of the theme.

You’ve got a couple of weeks to try your hand at making rabbit dumplings and impress your friends at a celebration for the Year Of The Rabbit.

• Conventional dumplings are made from all-purpose flour. The translucent, chewy skin of crystal dumplings is a result of mixing wheat starchwith rice flour and tapioca. Here’s a recipe.
• Here’s a cooking video that shows how easy it is to make basic dumplings.
• The Chinese word for dumplings is jiaozi, pronounced gee-OW-za—similar to the Japanese word for dumplings, gyoza, pronounced GYOO-zah.

Cook with salsa!

These two recipes for Chicken Salsa and Fish Salsa show just how easy it is to take the protein, a jar of salsa, and create an easy and delicious dinner. They also work with tofu.

While the protein is cooking, make a green salad, steam a green vegetable and make some brown rice (microwave precooked frozen or cook it in the pressure cooker for the same 15-20 minutes that the protein takes.)

To Microwave Brown Rice

1. Add 1 cup brown rice and 3 cups cold water in a 2-1/2 quart microwave-safe dish. (We enjoy our square CorningWare casserole dish, which also looks nice at the table.)

2. Microwave uncovered for 10 minutes on HIGH.

Salsa Chicken is one of the easiest chicken
recipes to make. Photo courtesy McCormick.com.

4. Allow to sit for 5 minutes in the microwave (you can remove it if you need the microwave for another task).

5. Fluff with a fork and add any seasonings. For healthy cooking, don’t add butter, but look to herbs, spices and/or veggies: chives (or green onions), diced bell peppers and/or toasted sesame seeds, for example. A sprinkling of slivered almonds, walnuts or other healthy nuts also pairs well with the nutty flavor and chewy texture of brown rice.