tabla: Chef Cardoz

spice rack
Tabla's kitchen has a room dedicated to every spice common to Indian cuisine, along with a selection of American and South American chilies.

One Spice, Two Spice

The fall and winter seasons are the perfect time to introduce these 'warming' spices into your kitchen routine.

Mace
Mace grows on the same tropical tree as nutmeg. The fruit of the tree bears black nuts with 'nutmeg kernels' surrounded by a webby net called mace. The net is removed, flattened and dried.
Mace works well with lamb and game which is perfect for the season. Combined with green cardamom, it really helps to warm up the body a bit.

Cinnamon
This spice is the result of drying the thin, rolled inner bark of the cinnamon tree - an evergreen indigenous to southern India and Sri Lanka.
Great in stews and, like mace, with any game. Use it for fruit-roasting or stewing apples, and also in seafood!

Green Cardamom
A warming spice that is also sweet, it comes from a plant in the ginger family and is one of the more expensive spices.
Green cardamom and mace work really well together, and are perfect for grilling meats in the fall and winter.

Cloves
The aromatic dried, unopened flower buds of a small evergreen tree that is native to the Spice Islands in Indonesia.
Once again, works well with game and seafood. When roasting pumpkins with lime juice and maple syrup, add cloves and cinnamon - this enhances the sweetness of the pumpkins.