{"id":9595,"date":"2014-03-28T13:52:17","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T17:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9595"},"modified":"2014-03-28T13:52:17","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T17:52:17","slug":"posh-spice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/posh-spice\/","title":{"rendered":"Posh Spice"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2014 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Maine is the last place on Earth you\u2019d expect to find fresh spices\u2026unless you know where to look.<\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

\"posh-Spice_thumb\"<\/a>What international spices can we find in Maine? How can our global embrace be locally approached? Creatively, it appears.<\/p>\n

START IN THE BACKYARD<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe toast a lot of chiles here,\u201d says Matt Burns, in the kitchen at Zapoteca on Fore Street. \u201cArbols, anchos, pasillas, mulattos, and not as often as you\u2019d think, chipotles. We toast them, cool \u2019em down, seed them, and grind them into our own powders. This is always better than any powder you can buy. All you need is a coffee grinder or a good blender. We make a lot of adobos and moles, so we\u2019re toasting or rehydrating chiles every day.\u201d Maine farmers grow many varieties of peppers now, including hot chiles, and Burns uses these too. \u201cIn season, we take the two-minute walk up to Monument Square to see what they\u2019ve got on Wednesdays. Occasionally, local farmers dry out some chiles\u2013it\u2019s more hobbying and toying around, but we\u2019re always willing to try them when they\u2019re available.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe address this challenge in several ways,\u201d says David Levi, chef\/owner of Vinland, the Portland restaurant strictly dedicated to fresh and local everything. \u201cWe use native-grown [herbs and] spices, including ginger, turmeric, coriander, cayenne, anise hyssop, and lemongrass. We seek out exceptionally flavorful ingredients rather than assuming\u2013falsely\u2013that a carrot is just a carrot, a turnip is a turnip. We use wild herbs and spices like juniper, white pine, black trumpet [mushroom], and chaga [an edible fungus that grows on birch trees]\u2026 We find ways to highlight the intrinsic \u2018spiciness\u2019 of certain foods\u2026like the intense pepperiness of bolted arugula.\u201d<\/p>\n

CLIMATE CONTROLS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSpice flavor tones take on the characteristics of where they\u2019re grown,\u201d says Christine Pistole of Dresden, a Gryffon Ridge Spice merchant.<\/p>\n

OK, so can we dry the hard, round seeds produced in the fall by our backyard cilantro and end up with coriander seeds?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can. I\u2019ve done it. But they just won\u2019t taste quite the same. Most herbs and spices come from Asia\u2013they\u2019ve got the heat and dry soil. We just don\u2019t have that kind of growing season in Maine. I\u2019ve grown cumin plants a few times and harvested the seeds and they\u2019re fine, but not as intense. And there\u2019s nowhere near the quantity I need [for her business].<\/p>\n

\u201cI go through about 500 pounds of cumin seeds in a year, but in small batches. I toast and grind the seeds myself [for every spice she sells in ground or powdered form]. As soon as you toast and grind, you\u2019re releasing the essential oils in the seed, so you want it to be as fresh as possible. My batches are small enough to keep the flavors so much brighter than supermarket jars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other wild card is a commercial drying facility. \u201cWe don\u2019t have one in Maine. The state just doesn\u2019t grow enough spice or herbs to make one practical. And seeds and chiles need to be dried as soon as possible for freshness. Some are slow-dried, some require some smoking. If fresh spice comes from Asia, the first stop is California, and they do have drying facilities. It\u2019s not practical to send them all the way to Maine.\u201d You can dry the seeds and chiles you grow yourself the old-fashioned way\u2013in the air in well-ventilated conditions\u2013but this doesn\u2019t meet commercial production regulations.<\/p>\n

Johnny\u2019s Selected Seeds\u2019 2014 catalog is proof that Maine\u2019s herb sophistication continues\u2013more than a dozen varieties of basil, an entire page of parsleys, lemongrass for Southeast Asian dishes. But there\u2019s nothing intended for planting here that will become an actual spice, other than good old dill weed maturing into dill seeds for our pickles.<\/p>\n

Pistole imports spice seeds and dried chiles\u2013strictly organic varieties\u2013to create chile powders, spice rubs, and mixes. She has an extensive line, from whole peppercorns of many hues to ground Aleppo pepper and asofoetida to Saigon cinnamon. Gryffon supplies Whole Foods markets in the Northeast, along with many independent stores in Maine such as Rosemont Market, Browne Trading, and LeRoux Kitchen in Portland and Bow Street Market in Freeport,\u00a0 along with other local accounts with sausage makers and butchers.<\/p>\n

MIXING IT UP<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I use in my blends is purchased,\u201d says pepper connoisseur Jessica Moore of her Regina Spice line of spice, herb blends, and rubs which she manufactures at 179 Woodford Street in Portland. Her alchemy combines the exotic and local into such mixes as Sweet Smoky Fire, an ancho-chipotle-maple rub for meat. She grinds the seeds she uses and sticks to small batches. \u201cI try for U.S.-grown if possible, and organic if possible, but I\u2019ll take U.S. over organic if necessary for something like garlic granules. They really need to be fresh and pungent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore, a founder 15 years ago of Portland Spice Co. in the bygone Portland Public Market, believes in the power of spice.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy absolute favorite peppercorn is tellicherry\u2013really pungent, not bitter, and the best texture for allowing you to control the grind size. White pepper\u2019s hotter; its bright, hot tones are the bridge to lift flavors that might otherwise be heavy on the palette. People think it\u2019s only for cream sauces because it doesn\u2019t show black flecks. But it\u2019s essential to something like hot-and-sour soup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regina Spices hit the market in Horton\u2019s Fine Food on the first floor in the Public Market House in Monument Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpices and herbs are a low entrance into fancier\u2013and healthier\u2013cooking,\u201d says Moore. \u201cIt\u2019s an easy way to start raising the bar to make your food more interesting. I always say, if you can roast a chicken breast, you can give it some spice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get our spices from a place in Boston,\u201d says Manu Singh at Tandoor restaurant on Exchange Street. He offers a glimpse into what may explain the Tandoor\u2019s 20 years on a street where trendy caf\u00e9s come and go. \u201cIt\u2019s the same coriander and cumin and curry spices anyone can get. But you mix your own masala. The way you mix it makes it yours<\/em>.\u201d Aha.<\/p>\n

THE POLITICS OF SALT<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Maine can be said to have a truly native seasoning, it is salt. \u201cMaine Sea Salt is the first micro salt works in the continental U.S.,\u201d says Steve Cook, who, with his wife Sharon, has been drying pure, unadulterated sea salt from Atlantic seawater near their home in Washington County since 1998. (There are no quantity restrictions on seawater.) \u201cWe produce 40,000 pounds annually, [and] we\u2019ve been growing every year. It takes about four gallons of sea water to make a pound of Maine Sea Salt. Sea salt is a food, and I have an FDA license.\u201d The Cooks\u2019 salts and Mt. Desert Rock Sea Salt from Swan\u2019s Island are in retail stores throughout Maine.<\/p>\n

Premium \u201cfinishing\u201d salt, flavored salt, and smoked salt are big business. Maine Sea Salt has some flavored and smoked versions, Stonewall Kitchen carries salts, and Vervacious on Commercial Street gets global with Mexican chili pepper salt, saffron fleur de sel<\/em>, Sichuan, Sicilian, spicy curry, and star anise salts. The Salt Cellar in the Old Port is devoted to all things salt, including a selection from Maine.<\/p>\n

Some of us find the concept of applewood-smoked, lemon-lime, espresso-vanilla, or rosemary salt puzzling, but we\u2019re apparently in the minority. \u201cThe average person goes for flavored,\u201d says Randall Chubbuck at the Salt Cellar. \u201cMaybe one in 10 goes for plain sea salt.\u201d He sings the praises of \u201camazing black and white truffle salt from Italy\u201d and reveals that smoked salt is \u201cpopular with pizza chefs who put it in the dough to add depth and subtle smokiness. It turns out it\u2019s also really good on moose. My dad got one this year, and I tried it.\u201d<\/p>\n

LIFE BY CHOCOLATE<\/strong><\/p>\n

You never know where the spice road will lead. How about a spicy candy bar? At Bixby & Co. in Belfast, Kate McAleer makes what she calls \u201cnutritious, all-natural, vegan, gluten-free\u201d chocolate bars , each containing a fruit, a nut, \u201cand my fourth dimension, a spice.\u201d Her white chocolate bar with pistachios, almonds, goji berries, and cardamom won a Good Food award at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco in January.<\/p>\n

THE GIN GAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spices are also the soul of distilled spirits, a thriving cottage industry in Maine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go through hundreds of pounds of juniper berries,\u201d says Constance Bodine, who owns Sweetgrass Farm Winery and Distillery in Union with her husband Keith. She is pouring out a taste of their Back River Gin in Sweetgrass\u2019s shop and tasting room on Fore Street in the Old Port. It\u2019s wonderfully bright and peppery with juniper flavor. Just not Maine juniper. \u201cThere\u2019s no commercial juniper berry harvesting in Maine, even though they\u2019re perfectly edible\u2013I\u2019ve picked them and cooked with them,\u201d says Constance. The Bodines\u2019 gin is distilled with Hungarian juniper\u2013and with Maine blueberries. Blueberries, in this pure, clear spirit? \u201cThe distilling process removes all color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweetgrass\u2019s line includes wine, vermouth, apple brandy, whiskey, and two kinds of bitters using Maine blueberries and cranberries. A dash of these bitters in plain seltzer or tonic is a revelatory taste explosion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2014
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