Photo Friday

OK, so I'm not yet an official member of the Photo Friday group, but seeing as how I have finally got my arse in gear to create this on-line presence, I thought that I should start contributing. Plus, a foodie theme will always get me going!

I'm very proud of my spice drawer: it's an extra deep drawer that holds a lot of different spices, and is right in the centre of the kitchen, between my 2 cooking areas. And if you're wondering why I have 2 cooking areas, it's because I have an Aga. I use this for our home cooking, but it's currently switched off, as it makes the kitchen too darned hot in summer (although our recent hot spell seems to have come to an end, so I may turn it back on soon). However, because I need to give accurate oven temps/cooking timings based on a regular oven/hob for when I'm recipe writing, I have a separate gas hob and fan oven for testing purposes - and for the summer!

Needless to say, because I cook for a living, as well as for pleasure, I have a bazillion different spices, and they won't all fit in one drawer. So the lesser used stuff (and refills etc.) get stuck in the larder. But the drawer itself is a thing of beauty. Not quite neat serried ranks of spice bottles, as they are differing heights and sizes, but at least they are organised in alphabetical order, so that I can lay my hands on the relevant spice at a moment's notice.

I use a lot of spices in my home cooking; Indian and Middle Eastern recipes are great sources of inspiration. The spices that come out most often are cumin (seeds and ground), cinnamon, nutmeg, dried chilli flakes and smoked paprika. Although there are a few dried herbs, they don't get used a lot, as I prefer to use fresh. Ridiculously though, I don't have a proper herb garden at the moment; I need to clear an area near the kitchen so that I can just nip out and snip away. Doing the garden always falls down rather low on my "to do" list though. My favourite containers are the little metal canisters (blue and green), which I bought in Italy and just refill as needed. The nutmeg (noce moscata) contains the cutest little mini grater in the tin.

I would share some other spice photos with you, but I haven't a clue how to include more than one picture in a single post!